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MEMOIR 



OF 



RANDOLPH SAILER, 



$tton& (&&\tion. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
SMITH, ENGLISH & CO., 

No. 710 Arch Street. 

1871. 






\ 



o.m. 



MOORE <fe SONS, PRINTERS, 

1125 and 1127 Sansom Street, Phila. 



PREFACE. 



CHE first edition of the following Memoir was published by 
Mr. Henry Bower, a personal and intimate friend of its 

j Subject, and consisted of a limited number of copies only. 
Inquiries for the work having been made by some friends who 
were unable to procure copies, it has been determined to reprint, 
with a few alterations, the tribute to Mr. Sailer's memory, 
which has proved so acceptable. 

The life of Randolph Sailer, though passed amid occupa- 
tions in their nature strongly contrasted, and each, while fol- 
lowed, engaging his absorbed attention, was, yet, one continuous 
exercise of all the qualities which entitle men to the esteem of 
their fellow-men. As a boy, we find him brave and energetic, 
proven in the rescue of his brother at the risk of his own life. 
We note the same energy and courage manifested in his more 
mature years, in a willingness to give up the almost certain 
chances of wealth, to follow what he considered to be the duty 
of his life. Industry, punctuality, hard and earnest study pray- 
erful hope, were his daily attributes, and were firmly engrafted 
upon his nature. 

The course of such a man, though short, must form one of " the 
lives that speak.'* Hence, the hope is indulged, that the win- 
ning message conveyed by his even and consistent example may 
prove beneficial to thoughtful and ingenuous youth. Such per- 
suasion has prompted the publishers to improve the opportunity 
of giving to the present Memoir a wider circulation. 



'"'mmx. 




RANDOLPH SAILER, the son of Mr. 
Joseph Sailer, now (1871) and for many years past 
financial editor of the Philadelphia Public Led- 
ger, was born in "Woodbury , 'N. J., on the 24th of 
May, 1833 ; he was the second of seven children, 
and the eldest boy ; his grandmother, Mrs. Sailer, 
is still living, being now 98 years of age, a re- 
markably energetic woman, having lost her hus- 
band in early life, and having raised successfully 
seven sons and a daughter, besides retaining in the 
family two farms. Mr. Joseph Sailer was the 
seventh and youngest son ; he removed to Phila- 
delphia in 1839. 

Randolph became a pupil in the Catharine 
Street Public School soon after his father's re- 
moval to the City. From early childhood he 
manifested great thoughtfulness and studiousness, 
learned his lessons with ease and retained what 

1* 5 



6 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

he had learned with tenacity, being regarded 
by all as a very clever boy. In his youth he 
showed great bravery of character, both morally 
and physically, was always self-denying to a 
marked degree, having as well, an innate power 
for the exercise of punctuality. "When quite a 
boy, the alarm clock stood upon his mantel- 
piece to arouse him from his slumbers, and it 
never sounded in vain; even if late hours the 
night before, or slight indisposition would, be- 
sides youth, assist to hold him in the drowsy em- 
brace of sleep, he would rise to his task, what- 
ever it chanced to be. When about ten years of 
age, being upon a visit to his grandmother in 
New Jersey, Randolph, with a younger brother, 
went fishing in the Delaware River, at the foot 
of a wharf about forty rods from the house. For 
some purpose he returned to the house, leaving 
his brother in charge of the rod and line. The 
little fellow, while endeavoring to cast the line, 
fell into the river, in water far over his depth. 
Randolph, coming from the house, did not seethe 
boy on the wharf, and hastening to its edge, saw 
him appear above the surface; plunging in, he 
caught the sinking form by the clothing, and by 
great effort reached some logs near by ; clinging 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 7 

to these, he held firmly to the child, until both 
were rescued from the dangerous position by 
stouter arms. He entered the High School in 
July, 1845, being then twelve years old. This 
school was then in the zenith of its usefulness, 
under the principal direction of Professor John 
S. Hart; the class of which he was a member 
numbered one hundred and twelve pupils, and 
Randolph Sailer ranked among the highest. He 
graduated from this institution in July, 1849, 
completing the full course. Then only sixteen 
years old, yet from his studiousness, the rapidity 
with which he acquired knowledge, and his quick 
perception of character, he was far in advance of 
most of those of his own asre in general informa- 
tion and fitness for business. Just at that time, 
Mr. Thomas H. Powers, of the house of Powers 
& Weightman, manufacturing Chemists of Phila- 
delphia, applied to Professor Hart for a young 
lad, qualified to assist him in his counting- 
room. Randolph Sailer having been recom- 
mended, was accepted. Having learned phono- 
graphy at the High-School, and writing a pecu- 
liarly neat and legible hand, he was eminently 
fitted for the post of corresponding clerk. His oc- 
cupation for four years was that of taking down 



8 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

in short hand the matter dictated by Mr. Powers, 
and writing letters from these notes. Mr. Powers 
describes him when he entered the office, as a 
youth neat in dress, polished in manners, hand- 
some, quick in movement, well read, and with all 
exceedingly modest ; he took his place in the 
counting-house July 23, 1849. 

Randolph becoming of a deeply religious turn 
of mind, joined the Presbyterian Church, uniting 
with "Old Pine Street Church," of which the 
Rev. Dr. Brainerd was Pastor, and became a favo- 
rite of that good man. Deeply impressed with 
the obligation of " doing good," and modestly 
hopeful of his qualifications to effect it, he now 
began to think of becoming a minister of the Gos- 
pel, and finally determined to fit himself for the 
duties of the pulpit. That he encountered much 
opposition to this course is not to be marvelled 
at, for the position he held, and the warm regard 
of his employers would seem to have placed him 
in a particularly favorable position for future wel- 
fare ; but, to use his own language, " he could 
withstand argument and resist logic, but he must 
yield to the force of truth, as that truth revealed 
itself in a life, benevolent, pure and self-sacri- 
ficing." 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 9 

It was noticed about this time, by those of his 
friends who had opportunity of observing him, 
that Randolph studied closely a number of schol- 
arly and systematic works of a religious charac- 
ter. Among them he read Bishop Mcllvaine's 
Evidences of Christianity, and, as he said, " with 
great interest and profit to himself." 

He began study, to prepare to enter the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, while still occupying his 
desk at the counting-room — commencing then, 
perhaps, to practice in earnest that wonderful in- 
dustry and great economy of time, which, all 
through his life, were among its marked features. 
Books were purchased, a student's desk provided, 
and, while discharging his duties faithfully as a 
clerk, he made rapid progress in English and 
Classical studies. 

Mr. Sailer was now twenty-one years old, and 
was advised by many to enter some Theological 
Seminary at once, but from his love of thorough- 
ness, and being firmly convinced that in order to 
become an occupant of the pulpit, more general 
learning and culture than he possessed were de- 
manded, he decided to enter the University first. 
By his private study he was enabled to pass the 
examinations of the freshman and sophomore 



10 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

classes, entering at once the junior class in the 
autumn of 1855. This is a difficult task and try- 
ing ordeal, and rarely accomplished, as the first two 
years of college life fit one in many particulars 
for the following classes. To use the language of 
one of his fellow-students, "Mr. Sailer was al- 
ways among the most distinguished of his class 
with regard to scholarship, was always noted for 
his close and conscientious attention to his col- 
lege studies, and was proficient in all of the 
branches included in the course, though perhaps 
excelling in the English branches, Belles Lettres, 
and Moral Philosophy. He was a lucid and ele- 
gant writer and good speaker, his essays and de- 
clamations (which in the senior class were of ori- 
ginal composition,) being uniformly of a high 
standard. From his studious and retiring dispo- 
sition, Mr. Sailer naturally associated in the class 
with those who, like himself, tried to make the 
most of the opportunities for acquiring knowl- 
edge. He was, nevertheless, so gentle and so affa- 
ble in his manners, that he soon secured and con- 
stantly retained not only the respect but the 
friendship of every one of his classmates." Upon 
two consecutive occasions when demonstrating a 
problem at the black-board, being very faint, he 



RANDOLPH SAILER. II 

was obliged to sit down ; fearing that the profes- 
sor and his class-mates might think he wa3 feign- 
ing illness, upon the last occasion he requested 
that a low mark might be given for the recita- 
tion. 

The following are some of his essays written 
about that time: 



12 RANDOLPH SAILER. 



SPRING. 



" The time of the singing of birds " ^nd the sea- 
son for asparagus is with us again. Rough win- 
ter with unblushing effrontery, lingered a full 
month in the lap of spring, until the maiden, with 
a tardy sense of propriety, and half repenting her 
act, dismissed him. Now external nature assumes 
her beautiful robe of green, and human nature 
puts on his light pantaloons. The stern frost- 
king has been forced reluctantly to relax the rigid 
grasp of his authority, and the fountains of waters 
rejoice in their recovered freedom; shad have ap- 
peared in our rivers, and like shadows they have 
disappeared from our tables. Tender plants peep 
timidly above the ground, and the mercury of 
Mr. Fahrenheit rises to confute those who have 
maintained, for so many weeks, that the scale 
above ten degrees was a useless and wasteful ex- 
penditure. Unpleasant sights of overcoats put up 
with camphor, yield to delightful anticipations 
of strawberries put down with sugar. The news 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 13 

of peace, from the East, is followed by the an- 
nouncement of peas from the South. Smiling 
April skies have tempted credulous humanity to 
long rambles in entire oblivion of umbrellas, and 
then have sent their sudden showers upon new 
overcoats and hats with malicious satisfaction. 
Almanacs are useful documents contrived to show 
the succession of the months and seasons, and kin- 
dred phenomena, of great service in ascertaining 
when a birth-day comes or when the soldiers' pa- 
rade, and in selecting a moonlight night for a 
serenade. Moreover, our newspapers, with com- 
mendable foresight, are accustomed to place the 
current dates upon their daily issues. But col- 
lege students with a moderate share of conscience 
towards their appointed tasks, cannot be supposed 
to find time to consult either almanacs or news- 
papers. And yet the college student is able to 
determine with unerring certainty that spring 
has arrived. There is a set of symptoms which 
long experience has inseparably associated with 
the vernal season. Where for months past the 
toiling seeker after knowledge has been accus- 
tomed to sit in the exploration of Greek roots, 
with the outside atmosphere jealously excluded, 
and with a grateful appreciation of the pheno- 



14 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

menon of combustion, lie now feels impelled to re- 
cline with extinguished fires and raised sash. 
There enters a balmy zephyr which scarce lifts his 
dishevelled locks, but which exerts influences as 
magical as did the lamp of Aladdin. It is the 
universal solvent of the physical and mental ener- 
gies, and through its medium the senses carry to 
the mind new perceptions of outward things. 
Desks and book-shelves are conceded to look so 
well in their present position, that it would be a 
pity in any way to disturb their regularity and 
repose. The Greek and Latin authors are thought 
to use a great amount of words in giving a very 
little information, and that little can be profit- 
ably dispensed with, at least for the present. Even 
Liddell and Scott, that most trusty and well be- 
loved of lexicons, becomes at once entirely too 
diffuse and too minute. All the conclusions of 
mental science are set down as baseless conjec- 
ture, and there can be no manner of use in bur- 
dening the memory with them. 

The study of the steam engine is regarded with 
pleasant indifference, and its most ingenious me- 
chanism is insufficient to raise the temperature 
of the feelings to surprise or admiration. If there 
had ever been a glimmering apprehension in the 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 15 

student's mind that there might possibly be some 
sense or usefulness in the Differential and Inte- 
gral Calculus, it is now utterly vanished, and 
there is an instinctive conscientiousness against 
opening the treatise. 

And as to writing an essay, actually sitting 
down to think out a composition, it is preposte- 
rous, out of the question. But if there be no es- 
cape from the requirements of two pages, it will 
be at least impossible to write anything dignified 
or sensible: Ergo, vide supra. 



16 RANDOLPH SAILER. 



PLEASURES OF SCHOLARSHIP. 



FIRST PRIZE ESSAY 



IN COMPETITION FOR THE "HENRY REED PRIZE," 
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



He who would describe justly the wide-spread 
and harmonized beauty of the Hudson Valley, 
must have climbed, with weary toil, the heights 
of Catskill. So he who would presume to speak 
of the uncounted charms in the varied expanse of 
scholarship, should have attained some command- 
ing eminence within its borders. 

Yet a kind indulgence will listen to the praises 
of the Hudson prospect, from him whose feeble 
steps have made but the smallest beginning of 
ascent; and we plead a like leniency to those 
whose timid efforts have revealed to their wistful 
eyes only scanty glimpses of the "delightsome 
land " of scholarship. 

The dignity of learning, the might of science, 
the demonstrable value of art, compel the homage 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 17 

of men : but we would rather allure their willing 
minds by setting forth the boundless resources of 
peaceful pleasure which wait upon the scholar. 
Within the limits of our common dependence, he 
is the most independent of men. Rich in solid 
acquirements and a cultivated taste, he feels not 
that pinching poverty of intellect which binds men 
in helplessness. By manly energy, he has risen 
above the stratum of restless and unsatisfied de- 
votees of sense ; he breathes a new atmosphere of 
serene enjoyment, and his quiet thirst craves not 
the turbid waters of popularity and power. In 
an emphatic sense, his mind is to him a kingdom, 
and its revenues are proportional to the careful- 
ness of its culture and the wisdom of its govern- 
ment. He is a cosmopolite in his native village ; 
and in the solitude of his study, he gives audience 
to those upon whom the world looked with reve- 
rence, and whose thoughts were received as a glad 
legacy by all the nations of the earth. Through 
their beaming pages, they show to the scholar all 
their heart, and his appreciative sympathy rouses 
them to congenial warmth. To the mass of men, 
a written and spoken language is a matter of 
course, as little likely to excite attention and com- 
ment as the abstract question of existence. But 
2* 



18 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

to the scholar it is a phenomenon, and its investi- 
gation is a well-spring of pleasure. He scans nar- 
rowly the primitive frame-work of the structure, 
and marks with curious interest how rude hands 
have piled and mingled its diverse materials. He 
discovers the heavy logs of the Saxon, and the 
light gray stone of the Norman joining and over- 
lapping in grotesque confusiou; the one giving 
the real strength of the edifice, while the other 
usurps the places of beauty and ornament. He 
perceives how, in their rough junction, the Saxon 
carving and the Norman moulding have been 
broken away as useless refinements, and how the 
noiseless hand of time has smoothed and rounded 
these primitive fractures. He notes the simpli- 
city of the plan, the capacity and fitness of the 
apartments, the massive strength of the whole 
building. He is never weary of examining the 
crowded and motley furniture and tracing its 
sources. He discovers here and there a utensil of 
the Arabs or the Moors, sadly patched and mended. 
More frequently he meets with composite masses 
of Greek remains; and upon all sides, disfigured 
Roman countenances stare him in the face. He 
recognizes without difficulty little objects of 
French and Italian vertu ; but constant use has 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 19 

broken the handles from the vases, and battered 
the noses of the statuary, except where their im- 
porters have placed them carefully upon an Italic 
shelf, or protected them from danger by a double 
fence of quotation marks. 

Novelty and beauty of adaptation continually 
reward his searching vision, and his mother tongue 
looms out of the mist in all the stateliness of its 
fair proportions. After such discoveries as these, 
how interesting to the scholar are the very sounds 
and letters of his language! A single spoken 
word fires a train of associations, and lights up 
the arches of his memory. 

The Celt, or Saxon, or !N"orman who gave it 
birth, steps forth from the shadow, and in the 
dim back ground appear the rocks or forests of 
its primitive home. Then there glides before him 
the rapid panorama of its wanderings and trans- 
formations, the changeful record of its popularity 
and neglect. With what power and skill does he 
use the weapons so familiar ! The weighers of the 
Mint do not test their delicate assays more accu- 
rately than does he the weight of words. Dis- 
posed and compacted with unerring certainty, they 
fall irresistibly upon the minds of men, now en- 
lightening as the sudden breaking of the sun from 



20 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

heavy clouds, now rousing the soul like the notes 
of the clarion, and now soothing chafed spirits 
like the gentle flow of rivulets. 

The scholar's possessions include the broad do- 
main of the world's poetry. The beauty and fra- 
grance of its flowers are for him. The spreading 
branches of its oaks shield his head, and its ze- 
phyrs cool his brow. Its pleasant nooks invite 
him to their enjoyment and repose. He treads 
with sympathy and delight the paths of invention 
and imagery which its old masters have marked 
out, and the pearls of truth, which his watchful 
eyes discovered by the way, are for his own en- 
richment. The thoughts which oft-times stirred 
his soul, but were too big for his own utterance, 
are clearly enunciated by the poet. The ideas 
which haunted him, so shadowy and vast in out- 
line that they mocked his efforts to delineate 
them, he finds vividly portrayed in lines of grace- 
ful rhyme. The struggling aspirations of spirit 
which his shrinking and conservative intellect 
checked and disallowed, meet their full response 
and encouragement in the books of his great 
teachers. The happy consciousness breaks upon 
him that minds of such nobility are kindred with 
his own, and with renewed zest he explores their 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 21 

wanderings and seeks out their hidden treasures. 
He travels in these worn tracks until strength- 
ened and disciplined by the exercise, his imagina- 
tion becomes a swift chariot to bear him upon 
unbroken ground, and to open new avenues of 
thought for those who shall come after him. 

The scholar enjoys a most agreeable and varied 
intercourse, of which the illiterate and sensual 
man has no conception. He walks in a universe 
where every work from the hand of nature, re- 
served and silent to the unlearned, has, for him, a 
friendly voice and greeting. The sun sends along 
his beaming rays a message to explain his position 
and movements in the heavens, and with the fami- 
liarity of old acquaintance, telegraphs his arri- 
val at equinox and solstice. The moon, studi- 
ously polite, in all her circling orbit never turns 
her back, and she nods to the scholar, when they 
meet, with dignified and matronly precision. The 
stars, at his earnest glance, start from their scat- 
tered confusion and range themselves with defe- 
rential haste into orderly companies ; while the 
alpha of each group sends a ray, faint and breath- 
less with the long journey, to report its name. 
The comets, with wicked delight affrighting other 
men, wink and smile to the scholar, and fairly 



22 BAND OLPH SAILER. 

wag their tails in pleasant harmlessness. The 
winds, who make the whole world believe in their 
unfettered freedom and arbitrary power, confide 
to him their constrained obedience to a code of 
laws. The tide, which waits for no man, stops to 
murmur to him a piteous complaint of the moon's 
remorseless tyranny. The trees and plants do not 
conceal their hidden circulation and mysterious 
life, and they make known to him freely their 
preferences of soil and moisture. The roses blush 
and the violets shrink into yet closer retirement 
as they whisper timidly their long names in La- 
tin, and modestly point out the generic likeness 
and specific differences of their family relations. 
Mountains and upheaved rocks detain him in long 
conference, and he listens with wonder and admi- 
ration to their whispered revelations of the dim 
past. Birds, beasts and fishes amuse and instruct 
him with curious disclosures of their organiza- 
tion, their habits, their peculiarities; and the 
whole animated nature is an open book, inviting 
him to turn leaf after leaf in knowledge of crea- 
tion's wonders. With most profound and com- 
prehensive interest he looks upon man, upon the 
miracles of adaptation in his structure, the clearly 
marked boundaries of his races, the problems of 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 23 

his physical well-being, the investigations, baffled 
and imperfect, of the mysteries of his intellectual 
and moral nature. "What glorious prerogatives 
of scholarship in the cultivation of such noble 
sympathies, the gratification of these lofty aspira- 
tions! It has been hard, in indicating even so 
meager a part of the enjoyments of the scholar, to 
reserve for a separate mention the religion which 
so dignifies and elevates them. 

The members of our solar system would unques- 
tionably continue to exist in some form and con- 
dition, if the laws of gravitation should be anni- 
hilated ; and so there may doubtless be varied and 
accurate scholarship without Christianity. But 
as the astronomer would be hopelessly at a loss 
in attempting to discuss the motions of the planets 
without assuming the power of a central and con- 
trolling sun, so w,z would consider the religion of 
the Bible as the governing and modifying princi- 
ple of all the scholar's attainments, and an essen- 
tial ingredient in his refined pleasures. 

Does he study language ? At the very outset 
he is impressed by the reflection that the faculty 
of speech, the inventive fancy, the combining in- 
tellect, are the gifts of God. He traces spoken 
and written language to its beginnings, and finds 



24 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

its earliest records in the sacred oracles. Does lie 
seek its choicest developments in poetry ? He 
discovers the burning strains which inspiration 
stooped to employ, seeming not unworthy of hea- 
ven's revelations. The minds whose explorations 
of truth have instructed and delighted him, he 
humbly recognizes as the handiwork of the Great 
Creator, Who fashioned men's hearts alike. The 
works of nature, with which he holds so pleasant 
intercourse, speak always of their Author. The 
heavens declare His glory ; they show the moon 
and the stars which Jle has made. Even the 
winds and the sea obey Him ; the Lord has His 
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the 
clouds are the dust of His feet. All the trees of 
the forest clap their hands; fruitful trees and 
cedars praise the Lord. The mountains quake at 
Him ; the rocks are thrown down by Him ; of 
old He laid the foundations of the earth. Every 
beast of the forest is His, and the cattle upon a 
thousand hills. The body of man, fearfully and 
wonderfully made, is His handiwork. His eyes 
are over all the earth ; not a sparrow falleth to 
the ground without His knowledge. The scho- 
lar's delight in the objects of his perception ter- 
minate not upon themselves; material things 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 25 

point him to their great first Cause ; His being 
and attributes furnish, through His word, unfath- 
omable depths of reverent study and contempla- 
tion, and His schemes of providence and redemp- 
tion stir up liveliest emotions of personal interest. 
" The works of the Lord are great, sought out of 
all them that have pleasure therein." The Chris- 
tianity of the scholar is the crown of the Plea- 
sures of Scholarship. 



26 RANDOLPH SAILER 



HUMAN GLORY. 



One of the most startling utterances that ever 
fell upon the ear of youth, is that which came 
with deliberate solemnity from the lips of Pay- 
son, carrying with it the weight and authority 
of his subtle discernment and deep experience: 
" I never was a happy man until I had abandoned 
all thought of being a great man." Can it be so? 
The aspiring youth shrinks from so unwelcome 
a truth, and would fain discredit it. Standing in 
the flush of eager expectation at the outset of the 
career of active life, his primary and ever-present 
aim is happiness ; but in the same line of vision 
his longing soul sees fame, and he has not doubted 
that the two paths coincide: — or that while he 
presses toward the shrine of the one goddess, he is 
nearing, with equal strides, the rewards of the 
other. From this tacit assumption spring all his 
motives and his plans, and it colors with rosy 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 27 

tint every day-dream of his future. How, then, 
can he hear patiently that happiness and human 
glory do not bear even companionship, that the 
ways of their pursuit are diverse, and that he who 
seeks the one must utterly forsake the other? The 
warm gush of youthful aspirations returns upon 
his soul with cold revulsion, and " the native hue 
of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of 
thought." 

Although from the pages of the primer to the 
classic verse of Sophocles, we have seen the thir3t 
for human glory held up for reprobation, and al- 
though at every turn, we have been met by " wise 
saws and modern instances," to condemn the am- 
bition for earthly fame, yet there is no truth which 
so signally fails to affect the conscience, or else 
from its irksomeness, is so universally ignored. 
Certain it is, th^tt among those whom God has 
gifted, there are few who look onward to their 
future, without either a settled purpose, or a vague 
desire to be, by some conquest of the world's ap- 
plause, among the great ones of the earth. But, 
sought for itself alone, neither the pursuit nor the 
attainment of such an object has ever brought 
solid and abiding happiness. Deeds which are 
called forth by no higher motive than the love of 



28 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

human applause, by the desire to stand upon a 
pinnacle of the world's fame, and to have the 
heart swelled with emotions which the subjection 
and homage of fellow-mortals excite, can never 
partake of the loftiness and consecration of spirit 
which alone give abiding peace. He who lends 
his energies to the pursuit avowedly relinquishes 
any claim to present enjoyment. The better sym- 
pathies of his nature, whose culture and expan- 
sion might throw around his path a graceful fra- 
grance, are neglected and stinted in order that 
all care and labor may be lavished upon those 
qualities which lead to power and command ap- 
plause. Though there be not that painful and 
unremitting watchfulness which the most absorb- 
ing thirst for fame implies, yet, in any degree, it 
is essentially a condition of discontent. This is 
the undying worm which gnaws at the heart of 
earthly ambition. But surely there is a full re- 
ward when the long-sought post is reached, — when 
the laurel is obtained, and the glory so ardently 
desired at length sheds its brightness upon the 
head of the aspirant, and upon the dazzled eyes 
of all beholders. Now at least he may repose in 
undisturbed enjoyment. Alas! the unanimous 
voice of keen-sighted observation and sad experi- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 29 

ence since the world began, sounds out a confir- 
mation of the fiat of Omnipotence : " Man being 
in honor abideth not." And these alike point to 
that " glory, honor and immortality," the pursuit 
of which alone gives nobleness to man, and the 
attainment of which alone is true bliss. 



3* 



30 RANDOLPH SAILER 



A NIGHT AT SEA. 



Come, ! ye busy powers of fancy, and sketch 
for the mental gaze of an untaught landsman the 
beauties and deformities, the pleasures and the 
pains, the haps and mishaps, the customs and cir- 
cumstances of a night at sea I Let him behold on 
your glowing canvas the stirring scenes which 
have been denied to the eyes of his flesh ; and let 
the fullness and richness of the shadows console 
him for the utter deprivation of the reality ! A 
night at sea implies momentous antecedents, 
which loom dimly in the back-ground. The ex- 
cited preparation of days and weeks, — the thought- 
fulness for the affairs of business, and the self- 
gratulation upon expected pleasure,— the regret of 
separating from old scenes and cherished objects, — 
all close with the final hurried good-byes, — with 
the last straining look at friends on shore, and the 
last waving of a handkerchief from the deck. 
Now he must needs turn and bestow his attention 
upon the varied objects of his new home ; but save 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 31 

the heavy feeling which tender partings have left 
at his heart, he finds no cause for disquietude. 
Though he may never before have floated beyond 
the clear vision of his native shores, yet so long as 
the sun shines, all seems natural enough, — since 
ships almost at his door daily invite the lands- 
man to acquaintance, at least with their phases 
and arrangements by the light of day. True, the 
gradual receding of the shore, its outlines grow- 
ing less and less distinct, until at last the eye 
loses them in the uncertain horizon, the strange 
sight of naught but sky above and sea around, and 
his entirely original observations of the process of 
practical navigation, are all new experiences to 
him ; but such as these have been associated with 
his first ideas of ship life. He receives them as a 
matter of course, and there is nothing in them to 
disturb the quiet self-possession with which he 
enjoys their novelty. And forthwith allowing his 
mind an easy range in pleasant chat, or converse 
with books, he " lays the flattering unction to his 
soul " that a voyage is a very agreeable recreation. 
But as the somber shades of night gradually fill 
up all space, his anxiety and discomfort increase 
in an inverse ratio with the departure of day, 
and his feelings of ease and enjoyment leave him 



32 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

with. " a uniformly accelerated motion." The 
clear sky and zephyr-like winds of the day have 
given place to a stiff breeze and lowering clouds. 
The sea leaps to the rough contest with the winds, 
and though repulsed at every assault, returns to 
the charge with undaunted courage and ever-in- 
creasing rage and violence. The good ship shares 
the indignation of the assailed element, and as- 
sumes a motion in sympathy. However interest- 
ing such a scene may be to contemplate in marine 
pictures, it is utterly void of romance to our stag- 
gering and clinging passenger. During the day 
he may have looked with dignified pity upon the 
unhappy state of those with more susceptible sto- 
machs than his own ; or he may have been moved 
to merriment by their grotesque postures and 
ludicrous complaints. But now he turns below 
with a vague suspicion that perhaps his own sys- 
tem requires a slight tonic. In the confined air 
of the cabin the feelings which have given rise 
to this suspicion assume a distinctness that casts 
an awful seriousness over his whole demeanor. 
He thinks of that which at home has been his 
refuge in time of all such trouble, — his friendly 
bed. But the idea of going to bed on board ship, 
is instinctively repugnant. It seems unnatural 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 33 

and inconsistent, and entirely at variance with 
his innate instincts and acquired habits. He has 
inspected his berth, and knows that he is to sleep 
there, but the thought of actually undressing him- 
self to get into such a place as that, involves some- 
thing of the ridiculous. But his peculiar feel- 
ings are a powerful motive force ; so letting go 
of the temporary support where he has been fee- 
bly illustrating the doctrine of forces and resist- 
ances, he reaches his berth by a line whose equa- 
tion is entirely beyond the reach of analytical 
geometry by any set of co-ordinates whatever. 
Unable to speak, he motions to the steward, who 
with incredible activity is supplying basins and 
performing kind offices. How he is partially un- 
clothed and assisted to his lofty couch, is to this 
day a mystery to himself. In a normal state of 
mind and body, he would listen with terror to 
the roaring of the winds and the rushing of the 
mighty waters, and reflect with solemnity that 
only a plank separates between him and destruc- 
tion ; but he has reached that stage in which he 
is utterly indifferent whether he be on the one 
side of the plank or the other, — and fortunate i3 
he if his distressing infliction allows sleep to his 
eyelids on his first night at sea. 



34 RANDOLPH SAILER 



BURIED TREASURES. 



Human nature is ever the same. Revolving 
ages display its numerous and varied, but estab- 
lished developments. Solomon held the pen of a 
ready writer against the same obliquities of hu- 
manity which called forth the subtle delinea- 
tions of Shakspeare ; and the son of Sophroniscus 
painted the same inherent traits which we receive, 
with a more delicate shading, from the pencil of 
Diedrich Knickerbocker. Among the innumera- 
ble characteristics of our common nature thus 
sketched for us, the innate propensity of man 
to covet ease and affluence without the trouble- 
some and roundabout way of laboring for them, 
is notoriously prominent. The more careful ob- 
server will be surprised to find how universally 
this propensity has given rise to a belief in the 
existence of vast riches buried in the earth by a 
preceding generation. The hope of possessing 
these treasures for the mere digging, has animated 
credulous mortals since the world began. When 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 35 

the wisest of men would express the deep and ac- 
tive earnestness which should mark the pursuit 
of wisdom, he could select from the habits of his 
fickle subjects no stronger comparison than the 
search for "hid treasures." "We trace the folly 
of the children of Israel to another century and 
under a Grecian sky in the whimsical clown of 
Aristophanes ; from the giddy Athenians to the 
mysterious diggers for Moorish gold in the gloomy 
shadow of the Alhambra ; and from staid Span- 
iards to a new continent and Yankee inquisitors 
in the sanguine searchers for the coin and gems 
of our own Captain Kidd. Assuredly it is a de- 
velopment of our common nature. And is there 
not sadness in the view of a man wasting his 
strength in delusive vagaries to the neglect of 
great interests, — seeing good where no good is, 
but not able to discern the signs of the times, 
which everywhere point to the recovery of true 
riches. As usual, the principle has been devel- 
oped downwards, but how grandly might it be 
embodied, by lofty, earnest minds, in the pursuit 
of practical utility ! How nobly might such en- 
ergy be employed in exhuming the buried trea- 
sures of the nations ! 

Once in the shadow of the Pyramids, there 



36 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

moved the brilliant accessories of a finished civili- 
zation. The placid surface of the sacred river 
reflected marvellous evidences of the power and 
skill of man, sculptured temples, heaven-aspiring 
columns, and gigantic piles at which for long ages 
modern mechanism stood aghast. The Greeks of 
a later day, boastful in sculpture and architec- 
ture, must trace the birth of their arts, to rude 
imitations of Egyptian grandeur. Innumerable 
canals, projected and completed in utter contempt 
of obstacles, marked the science and energy of the 
people. When royal magnificence demanded the 
precious deposits formed in the bowels of the earth, 
lofty mountains were dug down, and entire rivers 
turned from their beds to wash out the shining 
ore. The busy hum of industry resounded from 
splendid cities and thriving villages : while in 
their priestly temples and schools many a mighty 
mind strove for nature's secrets, or climbed the 
toilsome path of exact science. The mysteriously 
moving stars confessed with mortified reluctance 
their discovered motions, and when the imperious 
sun hid his face to cast gloom and terror upon all 
the earth, the creeping shadow encountered in the 
Egyptian Astronomer only calm anticipation. 
Over all the interests of the land, there swayed a 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 37 

scepter of wisdom and firmness, and throughout 
all the ramifications of government and police, 
Justice poised her even balance. "What now is 
the people that gave to the world such magnifi- 
cent lessons of progress and improvement? A 
motley nation of thieves and beggars, — a country 
abject in its squalid desolation. Science, art, civil- 
ization : these are the buried treasures of Egypt. 
In the dawn of modern history, a band of Scyth- 
ian robbers from the Steppes of Northern Asia, 
burst like an avalanche from their mountain home. 
Fierce, bold, irresistible, they pressed over all ob- 
stacles and enemies in their wild career of con- 
quest. Rapidly increasing their numbers and 
widening out their limits, they pitched their tents 
in the land of Homer and Demosthenes ; they set 
their feet upon the holy ground of Palestine. 
Joining the standard of the false prophet, it was 
their mighty aid which carried his victorious arms 
over the earth. Godfrey of Bouillon, and Richard 
the lion-hearted, encountered men as brave and 
chivalrous as themselves, and the Crusader's lau- 
rels were dearly won from the Saracen. With a 
daring band, Osman the bone-breaker, forced the 
passes of Olympus, and in the next century the 

4 



38 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

degenerate sons of the world's conqueror yielded 
Macedonia to tlie arms of Amaruth. The fall of 
Constantine's magnificent capital consummated 
the ruin of the Eastern Empire, and Europe trem- 
bled before the energy of the all-conquering Mo- 
hammed. Only the unwelcome summons of death 
troubled his plans against Persia and Rome ; and 
the marble upon his tomb was a weight taken 
from the heart of the nations. But what now are 
the heirs of that greatness ? Since Solyman the 
magnificent, no prince has carried the crescent to 
victory, and we behold Turkey, feeble, inactive, 
and stationary, — the sport of European diplomacy, 
— " the sick man " of the Czar. The spirit of the 
Koran binds the people, and in spite of treaties 
and decrees, to the Turk the Christian is still a 
despised dog, — a hated heretic. Independence, 
energy, vitality, — these are the buried treasures 
of the Ottoman. 

The Visigoth was the very embodiment of per- 
sonal liberty. "When at last he ceased his wan- 
derings, and made his home on the soil of Spain, 
he was fit successor to the Lusitanian who had 
dug the graves of so many Roman legions. It 
was the boast of the Visigoth that no shackles 



BANDOLPH SAILER. 39 

could come upon his free limbs. Roman assault 
and Moorish invasion made cruel trial of his con- 
stancy and courage, but there ever burned un- 
quenchable, even in the darkest cavern-retreat of 
the Asturas, the flame of liberty and indepen- 
dence. The spirit of Pelayo and his equal barons 
was not soon lost, but when, at length, just vic- 
tory rested upon their spears, and the scattered 
provinces of Spain were gradually gathered under 
one firm monarchy, the spirit of the Visigoth was 
visible in jealousy of the royal prerogative and 
well-guarded constitutional rights, when liege sub- 
jects remained covered in the presence of their 
king, and the Cortes of Spain was freer than the 
Parliament of England. Then Spanish Captains 
led to conquest, and the Spanish name carried ter- 
ror in Europe. The discovery of a new world 
rewarded her enterprise, and colonies which were 
continents became her dependencies. But her 
glory is departed, — Ichabod is written upon her 
palaces. Of her vast acquisitions in the Western 
Hemisphere, whereby Spain became an Empire 
upon which the sun never set, there remain but 
two islands in her uncertain grasp. That lofty 
spirit of chivalry which animated the contest of 



40 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

two noble nations until it became the atmosphere 
of Spain and the very breath of Spaniards, has 
deserted their degenerate sons, — save where its de- 
parted spirit hovers over the land, or lingers 
among the mountains. Fettered in personal fran- 
chise, shackled and debased in mind, the nation 
is the fickle tool of a corrupt government or of 
equally corrupt factions. The independence of 
the Visigoth, — constitutional liberty and its at- 
tendant blessings, — these are the buried treasures 
of Spain. 

Who could speak of the glory of the buried 
greatness of Greece! Who could estimate the 
value of the hid treasures of Italy ! The proud 
pre-eminence of her Genoese and Venetian com- 
merce, or the lavish splendor of her Roman art ! 
Her noble deeds ! Her pure faith ! And is there 
nothing which England, — proud, complacent Eng- 
land, — may profitably dig up? Has there not 
disappeared from her national record somewhat 
of the truth and justice and straight-forward ho- 
nesty which were once her boast ? And is not 
her escutcheon stained with crooked diplomacy 
and acts of foul wrong ? And are not her noble 
sons just in their burning reproaches ? Is it mere 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 41 

hyperbole which calls us to see how she has for- 
gotten her true greatness ? 

" How she frowns upon the free, 
How she ogles tyranny : 
How with despots she coquets, 
How she swears and then forgets ; 
How she plays at fast and loose, 
With lofty right and gross abuse If 

Time was when her Saxon and even her Nor- 
man sons took their stations in the state and on 
the field, not by a line of ancestors or a string of 
titles, but by a tried wisdom in counsel, and skilled 
courage in the fight ; when a general was some- 
thing more than a glittering garter, and an admi- 
ral more than a coronet. How shall her degene- 
racy be told to 

" That long and glorious line of heroes, 

Who, beside the Stygian lake, 

Harken for news from England." 
" Methinks I see the awful brow 

Of Cromwell wrinkle at the tale forlorn, 

See the hot flushes of his forehead glow, 

Hear his low growl of scorn." 

The nations claim glory for the buried dross 
of primitive ignorance and barbarism, but who 

4* 



42 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

among them can abide the strict demand for the 
treasures of the past? May our own beloved 
country, with these memorials spread before her, 
profit by the lesson which they teach, and by 
faithfulness to her high trust, purchase exemp- 
tion from a place among them. God forbid that 
history should ever record that the buried trea- 
sures of America are the patriot virtues of Wash- 
ington. 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 43 



RULING PASSIONS. 



The records of the past present us with astound- 
ing marvels. Yet in the greatest events of his- 
tory, — in revolutions of empire and in the shift- 
ing of mighty hordes, — in the establishment of 
leagues and systems, and in the upbuilding of na- 
tional constitutions, — in the improvements of art 
and the advancement of civilization, — the sole 
animating and achieving power we find to be in 
the motives and actions of men, — mere men, of 
like passions with ourselves. The inhabited world 
is the space which they have required and cleared 
for their movements, and the world's history is 
the account of their deeds. But we are not pre- 
sented with an equable flow and unruffled surface 
of mind symmetrical with mind, all cast in the 
same mould, and equipped and furnished by an 
unvarying standard. It is plain that what diver- 
sifies the record of the past is the wide dissimi- 



44 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

larity of minds. But I present the additional 
thought that everything most desirable in civili- 
zation, — yea, everything most precious in learn- 
ing and in religion, is due, under God, to the 
ruling passions of men. 

The mind of ordinary mould is beneficently 
fitted for the enjoyment of life's pleasures, and 
the discharge of life's duties. It is susceptible of 
cultivation in all its faculties, and of gratifying 
achievements in many way 3 of wisdom. But thus 
with impartial justice distributing its power, and 
checking any aspirant impulses, all its attain- 
ments preserve the dignified level of mediocrity. 
But when a great intellect makes a heart-choice 
of one among the paths of human pursuit, and 
runs in it with the mighty strength which zeal 
inspires, the little space of a single lifetime suf- 
fices to leave foot-marks far beyond all previous 
exploration. It is not enough that a man be 
rudely jostled by the force of outward circum- 
stances into a chance pursuit, and that necessity 
relentlessly urge him ever forward ; it is not suf- 
ficient that self-interest point him to a tempting 
path and never cease to hold before his eager eyes 
still greater treasures and a large sweep of power ; 
nay, more, not even when a keen eye has marked 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 45 

a course which leads to fame, and gazing upon 
that bright phantom in the far distance, presses 
onward with unflinching courage and unwearied 
vigor, can we look for results which are truly 
great. It is only when the pursuit itself is a ru- 
ling passion, — when the soul delights to lavish 
upon it the richness of its treasure and the strength 
of its devotion, that the achievements wrought 
command our highest wonder and respect. " I 
have brought you this," said a young man to 
d'Alembert, presenting him with a solution of 
a difficult problem, " in order that I may gain 
a seat in the Academy." The great mathe- 
matician, whose own offering to his revered 
science had been nothing less than his whole 
heart's devotion, looked with contempt upon so 
paltry an oblation at the shrine. He replied 
coldly, "Sir, with such a disposition you will 
never deserve that distinction. Science must be 
loved for her own sake, — not for the advantages 
she brings." 

"What bribe of wealth or of power, what temp- 
tation of immortal fame, could have drawn from 
Newton his great discoveries ! "What could have 
aroused his giant intellect to its mighty work- 
ings, and sharpened his mental vision to look so 



46 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

far into nature's mysteries, but the ardent love 
to search out truth which filled him, — what but 
a ruling passion ? 

Can we conceive a motive of fortune or of fame 
to have animated the Genoese admiral ? To have 
sustained him in wearisome journeys, in heart- 
chilling rebuffs, against ridicule and reproach, in 
the midst of mutiny, and in the face of failure. 
Every act of his career bespeaks a deep enthusi- 
asm for his cherished enterprise. He " found a 
new world for Castile and Leon," not to gain a 
kingdom or coronet, but under the potent influ- 
ence of a ruling passion. 

The daring Drake, that precious fillibuster of 
Queen Bess, though he brought home untold trea- 
sure, would never have "put a girdle 'bout the 
earth," but for a passion to ride amid the waves, 
and to search out their secret places. His adven- 
turous spirit delighted more to sail into startling 
danger, than even on bended knee to hear " Sir 
Francis " from the lips of his virgin queen. We 
read in his exploits another development of the 
ruling passion. 

At twenty Henry Martyn was named Senior 
"Wrangler at the University of Cambridge, — the 
highest mathematical honor in England, and no 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 47 

bly won by the brilliant talents and unwearied 
assiduity of the young graduate. Surely his won- 
derful attainments were due to nothing less than 
a ruling passion, — but as a star before the rising 
sun, so this devotion paled and disappeared before 
the divine energy which was to sway his future 
life. It was the ruling passion which carried him 
from the refined endearments of home to weari- 
some journeys, and more wearisome labors on the 
burning plains of India. Did he lend all his 
powers to the study of Sanscrit roots and Hindos- 
tanee dialect ? It was the prompting of an ardent 
desire to give words of life and light to a nation 
in darkness. Did he confound acute Arabic doc- 
tors with his demonstrations of the very science 
of which they boasted ? It was that mathema- 
tics, as all things else, should be subservient to 
that message which he had come to proclaim. 
Did he, alone, meet dark-browed conclaves of Per- 
sian soofies, and with unflinching boldness sift the 
claims of the false prophet and his book ? It was 
only that he might exalt the master whom he 
served ; — whose glory it was his ruling passion to 
establish. He gave his life a sacrifice to his zeal, 
and the world's records do not show a nobler fame 
than he achieved. 



48 RAND OLPH SAILER. 

Let me carry you back but a few years, and in 
the midst of the mad gayety of the gayest capital 
of Europe, there moves a man, when he stirs 
abroad, in deep abstraction. But when the sun 
is brightest and the throng is densest, he is shut 
from the sight of men in labor and study. Long 
successive days record only successive failures with 
camera and solution and plate. But his is an art 
which knows no limit but the impossible, and his 
pursuit is a ruling passion. "What wonder, then, 
that Daguerre should at length show before the 
world his wonderful discovery ? 

The youth, Haydn, walked the streets of Vi- 
enna penniless and almost resourceless, his talent 
unacknowledged, neglected. But in his garret 
he could record " with my worm-eaten harpsi- 
chord I envy not the lot of kings." He whose 
heart was so attuned to concord of sweet sounds, 
and whose enthusiasm never burned less brightly 
for the chills of neglect and poverty, was he from 
whom we might reasonably expect the triumphs 
of modern music, — the sublime harmonies of the 
Creation. 

We of the nineteenth century have so great 
complacency in the abundant evidence of our pro- 
gress, that we are in danger of falling into the 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 49 

opinion, that in no point whatever can the men 
of ancient days be contrasted with us. But it is 
well to remember that in the cardinal excellence 
of a language, modern civilization can bring but 
shreds and patches to compare with the noble and 
symmetrical structures of classic Greece and 
Rome. It is not strange, then, that in all the 
world these yet retain the allegiance of taste and 
scholarship ; and we of this alma mater* are privi- 
leged to know what enthusiasm they may worth- 
ily excite, and how life-giving is its influence. 
"Why is it that Heindorf and Dindorf, Ernesti 
and Kruger, Hermann and Stallbaum, names un- 
musical to ears polite, are heard with reverence 
in college halls, and wherever scholars most do 
congregate ? And why does the name of Bekker 
of Berlin, come across the water even to us as the 
diplomatic critic of Europe, to whose eye alone 
Greek manuscript gives up its hidden mysteries 
clearly, but that a ruling passion to dig in ancient 
lore has pressed every faculty into its service, and 
monopolized the energies of his whole life. 

We are accustomed to stigmatize those who, 
with great absorption, "buy and sell and get 
gain," as the bond-slaves of Mammon, and doubt- 
less it is a charge mournful in the extent of its 



50 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

application among us. Yet it is not hard to point 
out men with whom the mercantile life is a ruling 
passion : whose highest satisfaction it is to plan 
shipments and manage sales, to seize upon a south- 
ern market or monopolize an eastern consignment : 
whose plans of operation are more thoroughly 
systematized than those of a field-marshal, and 
whose discipline of forces, from cashier to porter, 
is more perfect than that of an army : men whose 
accumulations of knowledge are solely for the uses 
of trade, — who have written upon the entrance 
of their minds, " no admittance except on busi- 
ness." It is such a ruling passion that makes 
merchant princes, and that " lengthens the cords 
and strengthens the stakes " of commercial houses. 
The tallow-chandler of London, who at length 
resigned his business to his boys, and retired upon 
a plum to his country-seat, was obliged to stipu- 
late that he should come in and help on melting- 
days. Such a devotion could not be without 
meaning; and I hazard the assertion that his 
brand of candles brought the best price in the 
market, and enjoyed the utmost confidence of the 
trade. 

When or how the ruling passion obtains the 
throne of the intellect, and lays under tribute 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 61 

every defeated aspirant, — whether its dominion 
commence with the beginning of existence and 
grow in power with every year, or whether it be 
an unexpected invader, seizing upon authority 
because no occupant of the soil is strong enough to 
wield it, affects not the magnitude of its achieve- 
ments. Pope lisped in numbers, and the cradle 
of Mozart resounded only with cadence and me- 
lody ; while Gibbon records for us that it was at 
Rome, as he set musing amidst the ruins of the 
capital, and the bare-footed friars were singing 
vespers in th^ temple of Jupiter, that there flashed 
upon his mind for the first time the idea of the 
" Decline and Fall," an undertaking which noth- 
ing but a ruling passion could have accomplished, 
and which the world of letters still regards with 
wonder. 

The young man at whose feet the witnesses laid 
their clothes, at the martyrdom of Stephen, and 
who was consenting unto his death, was swayed 
by a ruling passion of unexampled intensity. A 
Hebrew of the Hebrews, and as touching the law, 
a Pharisee, he brought the vast powers of his in- 
tellect and the fearful energy of his whole nature 
to bear upon the advancement of his nation and 
the honor of his haughty sect. A threatened in- 



52 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

terference with these cherished objects aroused 
his relentless enmity and persecution : and, speak- 
ing after the manner of men, the ruling passion 
of Saul of Tarsus would have accomplished its fell 
purpose, — the despised Nazarenes would have been 
blotted out from the face of the earth. But the 
soul of man is as the clay in the hands of the pot- 
ter unto Him who ruleth in the armies of heaven 
and among the inhabitants of the earth. We see 
no longer Saul of Tarsus but Paul the Apostle ; 
yet his surpassing powers remain in all their 
vigor, and they are again bowed unto a ruling 
passion. Whether startling by his burning words 
the Roman Governor of Judea, or from the top 
of Mars Hill declaring unto the giddy Athenians 
the unknown God whom they ignorantly wor- 
shiped ; whether in the prison at Philippi or the 
palace at Rome, in scourging or in shipwreck, 
abiding or journeying, the same resistless desire 
blazed with unflickering brightness. Bound with 
a chain, and now such an one as Paul the Aged, 
he had stood once before Nero: and while he 
awaited that second hearing which was to expose 
him to the cruel wrath of the tyrant, the same 
devotion dictated bold and cheering words which 
have come through the lapse of ages to thrill our 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 53 

hearts. His glorying was in the Divine energy 
which sustained him, and in the consciousness of 
his ruling passion. " I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 
"With the ghastly front of martyrdom almost be- 
fore his eyes, he could write, " I am ready to be 
offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." 
And through the mist of time, we still mark 
clearly the sublimity of his undaunted bearing, — 
the very noblest instance of a ruling passion strong 
in death. 



6» 



54 RANDOLPH SAILER. 



THE STREET CLEANERS. 



A beneficent Providence has endowed the mind 
of man with innumerable capacities for its enjoy- 
ment and improvement. Not the least of these 
blessings is the disposition to gather lessons of 
wisdom from the objects and circumstances of 
daily life, — that reflective spirit which 

" Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
Sermons in stones and good in everything." 

Doubtless this trait finds its most natural and 
abundant exercise in the midst of the works of 
nature, when everything speaks of the Great Ar- 
chitect and of His wonderful provision for the 
wants of His universe ; but even in the thickly- 
built city, where piles of brick and mortar almost 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 55 

shut the view of clouds and sky, the thoughtful 
man finds in every day life opportunity not only 
to gratify the fancy, but to inform the under- 
standing and to improve the heart. 

A frequent object for the pensive contempla- 
tion of the pedestrian, — although not so frequent 
but that it might be more so, — is the Street 
Cleaner. Some of his characteristics will excite 
reflection. The most casual glance at his de- 
meanor teaches unmistakably the lesson of calm de- 
liberation. His every movement protests against 
ill-considered haste. The motto which accom- 
panied his family arms was probably "festina 
lente" but studied neglect has allowed the first 
word to become almost obscured. The well-known 
instance on record of a man who died in a hurry 
appears to be the salutary warning ever before his 
eyes, and he tak;es care that he shall never be ex- 
posed to a like calamity. The sweeps of his birch 
broom emulate in gravity and deliberation the 
pendulum of the Strasbourg clock. The length 
ened contemplation of four or five of the frater- 
nity on duty has an effect on the beholder like the 
balmy atmosphere of Italy, the fumes of opium, 
or the final drying at the baths of Damascus. 



56 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

The classical student who has read Xenophon's 
Anabasis, and remembers any of it, is struck with 
the unique hoe-scraper of the street cleaner. It 
fires a train of mental associations which awaken 
him from dreaminess ; for, as near as the truth 
can be arrived at among the dissentient authori- 
ties, it bears a close resemblance to the Irkeyyideff 
Xpu6a\ which Xenias offered as prizes to the sol- 
dies of Cyrus, with the merely incidental addi- 
tion of a handle. Matured gravity is the inalien- 
able requisite and characteristic of the street 
cleaner's office. It would be as gross an inconsis- 
tency to admit a mercurial young man into the 
fraternity as to make a lean man alderman, and 
the corporate spirit of the guild, aided by the 
sense of propriety in all reflective men, would rise 
instinctively against the consummation of such 
an outrage. 

The street cleaner gathers from gutter and pud- 
dle and mud-filled crevices the filthy materials 
for his dirt-heap, until it stands a black and foul 
excrescence on the highway, offensive to every 
sense. Though removed never so carefully, there 
remains the polluted reeking mark of its tempo- 
rary place ; and many fair winds and beams of 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 57 

friendly sunshine must exert their renovating 
powers before the eyes of men can rest with com- 
placency upon it. So the aggregation of sins and 
evil habits is gross abomination to pure moral 
perception: and so the defilement of bad deeds 
and ways, even when renounced, clings to the 
polluted character, until the sunshine of divine 
truth and the soft breathings of the Spirit, cleanse 
and purify the heart. 



58 RANDOLPH SAILER 



STORE AND FIXTURES FOR SALE. 



It is an open question whether a musing fancy 
be an advantage or disadvantage. Individuals 
who are endowed with an exciting help to the 
imagination in the shape of a strong alliance of 
the perceptive and associative faculty, will cer- 
tainly indulge in rambling trains of thought very 
difficult to justify to the strict utilitarian. But 
the afflicted ones will console themselves with the 
reflection that they are only using the powers 
which Providence seems to have given them, and 
will accept the pleasure which their musings 
afford as evidence of the truth of their presump- 
tion. These thoughts are put in motion for a 
very small consideration; for instance, a long 
train will start, and accomplish an eventful jour- 
ney upon no greater inducement than the sight 
of a sign, on the way to college, " Store and Fix- 
tures for Sale." 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 59 

It is certainly not the novelty of such an an- 
nouncement that excites attention. It may be 
seen every day, and almost everywhere : — in Mar- 
ket street, printed in large black letter, and ori- 
ginating the inquiry whether the owner has made 
a fortune and wishes to retire, or whether com- 
mercial difficulties demand a summary settlement 
with creditors: — in Chestnut street, where the 
words have been written in a highly ornate style 
by a writing master, and upon which w r e think 
it likely the storekeeper has found Chestnut street 
rents too oppressive for his trade: — in grocery 
stores down town, often with the accompaniment 
of a red flag at the door, and where the appear- 
ance of the proprietor seems to intimate that an 
adherence to the principles of Father Matthew 
would have obviated the necessity for any such 
announcement. t But none of these characteristics 
belong to the notice which we have seen on the 
way to college in the morning. It is written 
carefully and distinctly, but evidently by an un- 
practiced hand, on a piece of blue letter-paper, 
and is fastened against the window-pane with 
pieces of wafer. It provokes an inquiring glance 
at the " store and fixtures " alluded to. We find a 
small frame house, allowed to linger beyond the 



60 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

demolition of its compeers, and now surrounded 
by pretentious brick residences. The window 
displays a shelf of needles, pins, tape, and quite a 
number of other articles, yet of so small an aggre- 
gate that we involuntarily gain the impression 
that they have been made to cover as much space 
as possible. To the thoughtless, the idea of dig- 
nifying such an establishment with the title of 
" store " would be ludicrous; and the additional 
claim of " fixtures " would provoke loud laughter. 
But with us, a train of thought has begun to 
move with an impressive solemnity which forbids 
mirth. We catch merely a glance of a woman in 
mourning, as we pass by. Even fancy, cold as 
she is, deliberates a moment about the precise 
manner in which so meager an outline shall be 
filled up. But it is only for a moment. A young 
mechanic, with hopeful prospects, and confident 
in his energy, has attained the consummation to- 
wards which he has so long and manfully labored, 
and has led the choice of his heart to a new home. 
Three or four years have smiled upon their mu- 
tual thrift, and two new voices have been heard, 
widening and deepening the father's purposes of 
provision and comfort for his family. But from 
the scene of his daily toil he is borne, one sad 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 61 

morning, a mangled corpse. The wild grief of 
the wife, the bitter desolation which fills her 
heart, cannot be painted, even by fancy. Sorrow 
hangs around her for days, a cloud so dark and 
heavy as to shut out the consideration of any 
earthly object. As it slowly breaks away, her 
first look beyond it encounters the question of 
means of livelihood. The friends she has are 
rather beneath than above her own ability, and 
can aid her only by their counsel. "With sad 
sympathy they gather as a committee of confer- 
ence. The amount of a husband's carefully kept 
savings is considered sufficient to afford some 
choice of investment, and to preclude the neces- 
sity for that unceasing breathless struggle for life 
which crushes so many bereaved ones. The pro- 
posal that a small store shall be stocked is received 
with acclamation. It will admit of the aid ot 
her needle, and leave time for necessary attention 
to her little household. The very desirable loca- 
tion of the frame house is at once mentioned, and 
the prospect of a thriving business from the many 
surrounding residences is largely dwelt upon. 
Each one adds an encouraging suggestion, and in 
the confident enthusiasm of success, the widow 
for a moment forgets her grief. Not one can see 



62 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

a ground of fear. Alas ! they are kind friends, 
but not deep philosophers. They do not think oi 
the vast number of others, grasping and active, 
who will draw away from the quiet widow so 
much of her anticipated trade. It does not enter 
their heads to estimate that subtle power which 
carries so many with the crowd, even in smallest 
matters. And now the store, established a year 
ago with so much thought, every cent expended 
with deliberation, not a spool placed without a 
calculation of its best effect, is a sad failure. Ex- 
cept where considerate benevolence has dictated 
timely purchases, the neighbors have sent for 
thread and needles only on rainy days or in hasty 
exigencies when it was not convenient to go shop- 
ping. Now that we think of it, although we pass 
there every day, we never saw any one entering the 
store. The tape has become soiled and dusty, and 
the pink papers of the pins have faded almost 
white. As her dependence has been more and 
more upon her needle, the widow has grown more 
pale and thin. The committee of conference has 
again assembled, with graver faces and fewer 
words. It conceded that the rent of the store can 
no longer be borne, and they write for her win- 
dow, "Store and fixtures for sale." She must 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 63 

look forward to a single room, to closer economy 
and more steady application for her children. ! 
treacherous fancy ! did not we speak, at the be- 
ginning, of the pleasure of thy musings ? "Wilt 
thou not say rather that there has just come, op- 
portunely, the offer of a desirable situation? and 
that, as the housekeeper of a great mansion, the 
widow provides for^ herself and children a com- 
fortable and honorable home ? It is even so. 



64 RANDOLPH SAILER 



THE BEAUTIES OF SPENSER. 



It is the fire of genius only that gives life to 
everything admirable. All departments of hu- 
man art give evidence of the truth ; but it is most 
clearly and extensively apparent in literature, 
whose pages without it are blank as the leaden 
storm-sky, and with it, are sparkling as the clear 
starry firmament. Although we are conscious of 
its presence intuitively, and not by a process of 
analysis, or by tangible and determinate marks, 
yet, in the works of a master-mind we notice at 
least this peculiarity: there drop from his pen 
continually, and as it were involuntarily, marvel- 
ous expressions of wisdom and inimitable strokes 
of wit, in the midst of simplest narrative and de- 
scription ; so that we pause in pleased surprise at 
the accurate enunciation of our own dim and un- 
spoken thoughts, and the faithful painting of the 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 65 

deep recesses of our heart. How often do we thus 
stop over the pages of the great names of classic 
Greece and Rome ! How affectionately over " our 
father Chaucer !" How continually over Bacon ! 
How pre-eminently over Shakspeare and Burns ! 
Amidst this brilliant galaxy, Spenser shines 
with no obscure or uncertain light. Borne gently 
along over his melodious and stately stanzas, we 
come, in the midst of gorgeous description, upon a 
profound reflection or a startling moral truth, with 
the feeling of a traveler, who, in a wide verdant 
expanse, discovers a brilliant and fragrant flower; 
or the seeker of gold who unexpectedly finds a dia- 
mond ; or the astronomer who, sweeping the hea- 
vens in observation of fixed stars, detects a new 
planet : not that the moving grass, or the gold, or 
the stars have lost any of their intrinsic beauty 
and value, but the flower, the gem and the planet 
give all the pleasurable excitement of contrast 
and novelty. Spenser does not present us with 
the plainness of allegory, nor the multiplicity of 
personification which we find in Bunyan, prefer- 
ring, with a more delicate subtlety, to draw the 
parallel bold and broad, that his readers may be 
gratified with their own discoveries. 

6* 



66 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

Opening the first canto of his " Faerie Queene" 
we come from time to time upon expressive evi- 
dences of his power. The Red Cross Knight loses 
his way and wanders into the den of error. Re- 
ceiving the onset of the hideous monster with un- 
flinching courage, he deals her a blow into which 
he has put all his knightly strength. 

" Much daunted with that dint her sense was dazed ; 
Yet kindling rage herself she gathered round, 
And all at once her beastly body raised 
With doubled forces high above the ground ; 
Then wrapping up her wreathed stern around, 
Lept fierce upon his shield, and her huge train 
All suddenly about his body wound, 
That hand or foot to stir he strove in vain. 
God help the man so wrapped in error's endless chain." 

In the unprovoked attack of the monster, the 
knight has relied, with honest confidence, upon 
his strength and valor; but he has to learn, as 
many since his day have slowly and painfully 
learned, that these are not the only requisites to 
combat error. A single line from the lips of the 
gentle Una, enunciates the great truth of the in- 
sufficiency of merely human means in the asser- 
tion of right. 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 67 

" His lady, sad to see his sore constraint, 
Cried out, now, now, sir knight show what ye be ; 
Add faith unto your force and be not faint — 
Strangle her, else she sure will strangle thee. 
That, when he heard, in great perplexity, 
His gall did grate for grief and high disdain ; 
And knitting all his force, got one hand free, 
Wherewith he gript her gorge with so great pain, 
That soon to loose her wicked bands did her constrain." 

Not less beautiful and pleasing is the lesson that 
a truly noble strength exerts itself in behalf of 
trusting weakness, and that power is, of right, the 
guardian of innocence. The Lady Una is lost in 
the forest. 

" It fortuned out of the thickest wood 
A ramping lion rushed suddenly, 
Hunting full greedy after savage blood ; 
Soon as the royal virgin he did spy, 
With gaping mouth at her ran greedily, 
To have at once devoured her tender corse ; 
But to the prey when as he drew more nigh, 
His bloody rage assuaged with remorse, 
And with the sight amazed, forgot his furious force." 

" Instead thereof he kissed her weary feet 
And licked her lily hands with fawning tongue, 
As he her wronged innocence did weet. 
! how can beauty master the most strong, 
And simple truth subdue avenging wrong !" 



68 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

How quickly do we forget, in present safety and 
happiness, the long-continued troubles and disap- 
pointments of the past. Spenser has tenderly 
put it in a line. The counterfeit St. George has 
deceived the eyes and heart of the Lady Una, 
and she receives readily the explanations of his 
long desertion. 

" His lovely words seemed her due recompense 
Of all her passed pains ; one loving hour 
For many years of sorrow can dispense : 
A dram of sweet is worth a pound of sour." 

A passage of unsurpassed force and expressive- 
ness occurs in the scene of the Red Cross Knight 
in the cave of Despair. The monster has stated 
with most awful and insidious power, the argu- 
ment for suicide, and proceeds now to consum- 
mate the ruin of the trembling knight. 

" He brought unto him swords, ropes, poison, fire, 
And all that might him to perdition draw ; 
And bid him choose what death he would desire : 
For death was due to him that had provoked God's ire." 

" But when as none of them he saw him take, 
He to him raught a dagger sharp and keen, 
And gave it him in hand ; his hand did quake 
And tremble like a leaf of aspen green, 
And troubled blood through his pale face was seen, 
To come and go with tidings from the heart, 
As it a running messenger had been." 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 69 

But to glance at the beauties of even a single 
canto would be a work of hours. "We may be 
sure that the majestic verses of Spenser will never 
be neglected by the lover of the poetic and the 
admirer of true genius. 



"While at the University, Mr. Sailer was occu- 
pied a part of the day at the counting room, and 
was an active member of the church, a teacher in 
the Sunday-school, visiting and preaching to the 
sick and the poor, and at times assisting Dr. Brai- 
nerd in the duties of the pulpit, and upon some 
occasions making addresses in his place. 

The following passages, taken from " The Life 
of the Rev. Thomas Brainerd, by E. Brainerd, 
1860," contains a deserved tribute to Mr. Sailer's 
character, and is deemed necessary to complete the 
sketch of his labors : 

" About the year 1860 a few young men of Dr. 
Brainerd's Church established a Sabbath-school in 
the vicinity of the Navy Yard, naming it 4 The 
Brainerd Mission School.' Mr. Randolph Sailer 
was the originator, and the moving spirit of the 
enterprise, and carried it forward with great en- 
ergy and skill. The school was held in the hall 



70 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

of one of the fire companies, until the room be- 
came entirely too small for its operations. Mr. 
Sailer then matured a project for building a fine 
large chapel in Greenwich street, suitable for re- 
ligious services, in a neighborhood where such an 
influence was greatly needed. The money was 
secured by his efforts ; a tasteful building erected 
at a cost of $12,000, and paid for, and the new 
chapel was dedicated on the 14th of January, 1866. 

"Dr. Brainerd officiated at the dedication. 
Preaching was held in the chapel every Sabbath 
evening to large and attentive congregations from 
the time of its completion. 

" The following year (1867) the enterprise grew 
into a self-sustaining church, under the title of 
'The Greenwich Street Church. 51 The Rev. 
Mr. Hutton was chosen Pastor, and Randolph 
Sailer elected an Elder. Mr. Sailer was a gradu- 
ate of Union Theological Seminary in 1860, but 
he was compelled to relinquish his cherished pur- 
pose of preaching on account of a serious affection 
of his eyes. Had he foreseen the shortness of his 
life service, he could not better have appropriated 
it than in planting a Christian Church where the 
Gospel, which he was not allowed himself to 
preach, should be faithfully proclaimed by other 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 71 

men. Mr. Sailer followed his beloved pastor to 
the upper Sanctuary in just three years from the 
dedication of his favorite i 31ission ChapeU He 
was a young man of fine talents, of uncommon 
executive power, and of most consistent and sym- 
metrical piety." 

This period of his life shines out in wondrous 
brilliancy, even from the bright surroundings of 
future years. How great must have beefr his in- 
dustry to accomplish so much, and with what pre- 
cision and regularity he must have lived ; each 
hour had its duty. The mind could scarcely 
have had a moment's rest ; the physical labor also 
was great, the expansive and restless mind con- 
tinually urging the body on to assist in carrying 
out his great object of life, the aim which he ever 
had in view, that of " doing good to others. 5 ' The 
following letters to an intimate friend in Boston, 
give some account of his duties at this time : 

Philadelphia, April 3d, 1856. 
My Dear Friend : 

Your long expected and very welcome favor of 
9th ult. reached me in due course. I cannot say 
that I thought myself entirely forgotten, but con- 
cluded that my last had miscarried, or that my 



72 BANDOLPH SAILER, 

Boston friend was very " diligent in business." 
Your explanation, however, made the matter clear, 
and I forgot all disappointment in the distin- 
guished pleasure with which I perused the varied 
contents of your letter. 

A week ago we finished our second term at the 
University, which had been for me three months 
of very close application. The third term begins 
next Tuesday, and this week is a holiday. You 
can imagine how I enjoy it, for although I am on 
duty at the counting-house, the work is not labo- 
rious, and I come and go at my pleasure. The 
want of time for the past three months, however, 
obliged me to defer so many things unto this holi- 
day that I am as busy as ever, although much 
more agreeably. 

I am very glad to note your expression of inte- 
rest in this " land of your exile," and trust that it 
will remain in sufficient strength to insure us the 
favor of a visit at some early day. If you knew 
what delightful spring weather we have had for 
a few days, I think you would long to be here. 
I walked out yesterday without an overcoat, feel- 
ing almost rejuvenated by the clear sky and balmy 
air. As to the " intrusion" of your letters, trust 
my candor to remind you when our correspon- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 73 

dence becomes inconvenient, and until then do 
not deprive me of the enjoyment of this highly 
valued privilege. 

For your friendly interest in my studies and 
my health, I am again indebted. Strange as it 
may seem, I think I have enjoyed better health 
during the period of my hardest study than for a 
long time before. I weigh more than I have ever 
done, and upon meeting with those friends whom 
I have not seen for several months, I am contin- 
ually flattered with the assurance that I am " look- 
ing very well." I attribute it to the regularity 
of habits which attendance and study at college 
impose, with the exercise of walking to and from 
the counting-house almost every day. It is true 
that while at the block-board upon a demonstra- 
tion in mechanics, a few weeks since, I fainted 
and would have, fallen had I not been caught, and 
that the Professor supposed it to result from too 
severe study ; but I attribute it to a temporary dis- 
arrangement of the digestive functions. It soon 
passed away, and I felt no bad effects from it. 
The visit to our physician, which I thought of 
making, was never made, — I suppose because I 
never was decided enough about it to fix a time 
for going, — and the causes which had prompted 



74 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

me to think of it, seemed to pass away. I have 
no doubt, however, that I would have done well 
to have gone and may still do so. 

I notice that " seventy-three days of uninter- 
rupted sleighing," with lectures and concerts, are 
supposed to make " a hard winter for studying," 
and have not the least doubt that it is so, but I 
think no one has better earned these recreations 
than yourself. 

Your quotation of John Newton's saying, and 
your comments upon it, exactly accord with con- 
victions which have been forced upon my own 
mind. The first impulse of a watchful Christian 
is doubtless to avoid entirely scenes in which he 
finds his devotion weakened, and the zeal and 
effort for Christ's kingdom in the world, tacitly 
checked ; and perhaps it was such a feeling, not 
combatted by clearer reason and revelation, which 
led to the renunciation of all society, to cells and 
cloisters, with all their evils. But I clearly agree 
with you that human society is of God's appoint- 
ment, — that no one may rightfully shrink from 
his allotted part in it, and that in this, as in all 
things, we are bound to do all to the glory of 
God. In a few instances during the past winter, 
in which I have made one at social gatherings, it 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 75 

has been my grief that this principle, although 
acknowledged, has been so neglected, or its exe- 
cution so feebly attempted by me. "When it is 
clearly foreseen that in any case it will be practi- 
cally impossible to maintain Christian consistency, 
I hardly think we are justified in going into temp- 
tation so likely to end in discomfiture ; but where 
social intercourse is innocent and healthful in it- 
self, I think it is incumbent upon Christians to add 
to it the power of their influence for good. Do 
you agree with me ? " The Brainerd Society " is 
flourishing, and I trust it is exercising a good in- 
fluence. 

Your favor of the 14th ult., with the Bible 
questions, reached me a few days after its " illus- 
trious predecessor." I trust that I appreciate 
your kindness in taking this trouble, and that it 
will be placed among other cherished remem- 
brances. With your description of the class, its 
organization and the questions, I have been much 
interested. How I would delight in the leisure 
and opportunity for such study ! In glancing at 
the subjects, and considering what treasures of 
wisdom and knowledge they involve, I have a 
feeling like that of the miser who has a large in- 
heritance in anticipation. Those which you have 



76 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

designated as most interesting to yourself are those 
which strike my own mind most favorably. The 
comparison of the Mosaic account with the dis- 
coveries and theories of modern geology, which 
has always been of interest to me, I presume was 
included under the head of the " Creation " at 
your first meeting. The question of the origin 
of language is one which I would be glad to hear 
ably discussed. We have been lately studying 
Trench at college, who examines the theories and 
decides that Adam was gifted only with the power 
to form a language, and that his vocabulary was 
formed gradually, according to his wants. I 
would take much interest also in studying what 
bearing the histories of India and China, their 
religions, etc., have upon Bible History. Did 
" the division of the earth among the sons of 
Noah" lead you into Ethnology? It is a science 
very much developed of late, being greatly assisted 
by research into languages ; and our Greek Pro- 
fessor told us not long since, that all the results 
wonderfully illustrate and confirm the Bible ac- 
count. But amidst such an excellent and com- 
prehensive selection of subjects, it would be invi- 
dious to particularize. I sincerely congratulate 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 77 

you upon the choice of so excellent a course of 
fitudy. 

I have cheering news to send you. For a long 
time past, as you probably know, and up to the 
present winter, it was a general complaint that 
all our churches were cold and lifeless, and that 
very few were coming up to the help of the Lord. 
On the first Monday of January, as customary, 
K". S. Presbyterians held prayer-meetings morn- 
ing, afternoon and evening. They were very sol- 
emn exercises, and at the evening meeting, which 
I attended, the Holy Spirit seemed to melt many 
hearts. Just before adjournment, Dr. Brainerd 
proposed that union prayer meetings of the 
churches be held every Monday evening in our 
various churches by turn, which was acceded to 
and the plan heartily carried out. They were 
fully attended, and the Spirit seemed to be given 
in answer to earnest prayer. All the congrega- 
tions seemed to feel the change. In " Old Pine 
Street," meetings were soon held for three or four 
evenings in the week, and this continued five or 
six weeks, before and after our last communion. 
The lecture-room was crowded, and I have never 
known more solemn meetings. At the commu- 
nion forty-three persons joined on profession, and 



78 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

twenty or thirty more have conversed with Dr. 
Brainerd on the subject of their salvation. Our 
hearts are filled with thankfulness, and we call 
upon you to rejoice with them that do rejoice. 
Everything seems to have received a new impulse. 
In the Sunday-school we are encouraged, and there 
is every aspect of prosperity. 

"When I received from you " Closet Hours" and 
had read one chapter, it appeared to me the very 
book to put into the hand of an intimate friend 
about commencing a religious life. I did not re- 
ceive it back for some time, but have lately occu- 
pied the little leisure of the Sabbath in reading 
it. I finished it last Sunday, and have rarely 
perused a book with so much satisfaction. I con- 
cluded almost every chapter with a feeling that 
I must read it over again and not allow any 
of it to pass out of mind. " The Unity of the 
Church" particularly impressed me. It is an- 
other of the many valued privileges which are 
associated with the name of my Christian brother 
in Boston. 

This friend writes as follows of his dear friend 
Eandolph Sailer: — " He was so well known among 
you that it would be emphatically a work of 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 79 

supererogation for me to say he was good, true, 
noble, earnest, faithful, loving, strong, manly, 
firm and brave ; aside from the qualities I have 
named, if I should mention any distinguishing 
characteristic of Eandolph's character, I should 
say he was eminent for strict devotion to princi- 
ple, in opposition to inclination ; he was unselfish 
to an unusual degree ; his piety was not merely a 
good-natured regard for conventionality and lov- 
ing of one's neighbor ; he seemed to know God, 
and acted, therefore, from a constant sense of His 
presence. Few Christians have so abiding a source 
of dependence in God, direct and absolute, as he 
had. He did not compare his standard with that 
of other people so much as with God's own view. 
And here he was inexorable. Charitable to others, 
he was severe on himself; and his Christian safe 
walking, and his useful life were largely owing 

to this characteristic." 

Mr. Sailer graduated with honors at the Uni- 
versity in July, 1857, and entered the Union The- 
ological Seminary, N. Y., September 7th, the same 
year. The class of which he was a member num- 
bered nearly fifty students, and he seemed quite 
at home in the Seminary ; for many years he had 



80 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

looked forward yearning for the time when he 
would be a preacher of the Gospel, and now that 
he had entered upon his professional studies, and 
daily mingled with those who were of like mind, 
and had in view the same object, his mind and 
heart seemed at rest. Here, as at the University, 
he was a diligent student ; although his class was 
large, composed of able men, many of whom have 
since distinguished themselves, none were more 
conscientious in their studies, none better pre- 
pared for the recitation room than he; he was 
noted for his clear, rapid analysis, chaste language 
and elegant phraseology. As an evidence of the 
esteem in which he was held as a metaphysician 
and moralist, he was appointed by Prof. H. B. 
Smith to write a review of Edward's profound 
work on the nature of Virtue ; this he wrote to 
the great satisfaction of his preceptor. He was 
also regarded in the Seminary as a good speaker, 
being selected by his class to represent them at a 
public rhetorical exercise, and delivered the ad- 
dress assigned him with great force and beauty. 

The following extracts from his letters to a 
favorite lady cousin, will convey some account of 
his life at this time : 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 81 

Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., Oct. 20th, 1857. 
Dear Cousin: 

I have been promising myself for some time the 
pleasure of writing you, but it is not until this 
morning that I have had a convenient opportunity. 
As they have written me from home that you 
have paid them a few minutes' visit since my de- 
parture, you have doubtless heard something of 
my situation here, and my first impressions of New 
York. My separation from home (which I felt 
far more deeply than I expected), and my arrival 
in a great city where I was entirely unacquainted, 
combined to make everything appear very gloomy 
and distasteful, but when our studies were fairly 
commenced, and I had made a few acquaintances, 
I became quite contented. I missed, and do still 
miss, a great many of the conveniences of home, 
but it has the advantage of obliging me to learn 
a great deal that is useful, which I should not 
otherwise have acquired. The students have the 
entire charge of their sleeping and sitting-rooms, 
including making beds, sweeping, dusting, etc. 
I flatter myself that I already manifest considera- 
ble proficiency in these duties, and if you will 
come to New York, I shall be happy to submit 



82 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

my performances to your critical inspection. Yes- 
terday afternoon my room-mate was obliged to 
leave unexpectedly, to stay a week or ten days 
in Connecticut, and this morning I was left alone 
to make my first attempt at kindling a fire in a 
stove. It took me about an hour to get it into 
successful operation, but I shall know better next 
time. My room-mate and myself are on the most 
friendly terms, but I do not think there is much 
congeniality between us, and I feel often a rest- 
less and unsatisfied longing for human fellowship 
and sympathy. I strive to reach that height of 
communion with God in which I can say, " All 
my springs are in Thee," and " There is none upon 
earth that I desire beside Thee," but I find hu- 
man weakness and imperfection, and the sinful 
habitudes of life, very difficult to overcome. 

"With the professors and students of the Semi- 
nary, and all its studies and rules, I am very well 
pleased. I thought that I knew some little of 
the Bible, having always found pleasure in its 
study, but I realize now that I am just beginning 
to learn. I often think how much you would be 
interested in our translations from the Greek, and 
all our explanations and exercises upon it, al- 
though I think you are already an excellent stu- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 83 

dent in the Scriptures. The only really hard work 
we have here is the study of the Hebrew language, 
which requires close application. The distrac- 
tions of furnishing, house-keeping, etc., have pre- 
vented me, thus far, from devoting myself to read- 
ing and study with that regularity and system 
which I desire to practice, but I expect soon to 
make such arrangements. 

A few evenings since I went to hear the anni- 
versary sermon of the Evangelical Knowledge 
Society, by Bishop Johns, of Virginia, and soon 
afterwards I went to a meeting at your Board of 
Missions, and heard addresses from Bishop Lee, 
of Iowa, Bishop Kip, of California, Dr. Stevens, 
of Philadelphia, and Dr. Tyng, of New York. I 
had previously heard Dr. Tyng make a mission- 
ary address in one of our Presbyterian churches 
here. I had a letter of introduction to Rev. Mr. 
"Wiley, formerly in Philadelphia. He received 
me very cordially, and I promise myself much 
pleasure in his acquaintance. I think you will 
recollect Rev. Mr. Clark, also, formerly at Church 
of the Advent, Philadelphia. I heard him preach 
on last Sabbath at Elizabethtown, where I bad 
stayed from Saturday evening until Monday. 
Although I had an exceedingly pleasant visit 



84 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

there, and felt almost like leaving home when I 
came away, I found, as I think I have mentioned 
to you before, that it is very difficult to pass a 
profitable Sabbath away from one's home, unless 
it be under very favorable circumstances. Here- 
after I expect to be so engaged in a Sabbath-school 
that I shall not be willing to be away from it ; 
and having now heard several of the preachers of 
New York, I intend at once to connect myself 
with Dr. Parker's Church, — not because it is the 
most eligible, but because, being more of a new 
and struggling church than some of its rich and 
fashionable neighbors, it will afford me more op- 
portunity for work. 

Although only Presbyterian doctrine and gov- 
ernment are taught in our Seminary, it is open to 
students of all other denominations ; and besides 
Presbyterians, we have a great many Congrega- 
tionalists, several Baptists, two or three Episco- 
palians. Students of other sects are drawn here 
by the excellence of the Biblical instruction, all 
our professors having a high reputation. A city 
like New York also affords opportunity for a stu- 
dent to earn sufficient money to support himself, 
at the same time that he pursues his studies, by 
teaching an hour or two every day, or something 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 85 

of that kind. I ought to say also that life in 
New York presents many and peculiar tempta- 
tions. It is necessary that we should continually 
call our minds back to the contemplation of the 
great object to which we have consecrated our 
lives, and to guide the whole disposition of our 
time with an eye single to the glory of God. The 
religious privileges here are great and numerous, 
and it is our own fault if they are not means of 
grace to us. 



Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., Jan, 19th, 1858. 

My Dear Cousin : 
* * * * 

I hope that you will really have a chance to 
inspect my housekeeping while I am in New York. 
If you should pay another visit to Morristown, 
New York would be very accessible from there, 
and I hope that you will be able to prove it so. 
I ought to say, however, that we have lately 
found house-keeping to be so much of a burden 
and interruption, that we have engaged a man, 
who attends to the fire, brings up coal and car- 
ries down ashes, and sweeps our room twice a 

8 



86 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

week. This being the case, you will of course not 
expect to find things in quite so neat order as 
when I had charge of them myself. 

I was interested in your account of the course 
of lectures in Moorestown, and think that you 
do well to attend them. I have heard both Pre- 
sident Allen and Rev. Thomas Street ; the latter 
is pastor of one of the churches of our denomina- 
tion in Philadelphia, and is a very useful and suc- 
cessful preacher. The contrast which you men- 
tion between the crowded lecture-room and the 
small number at evening church, is certainly a 
sad one, but must be expected for some time yet, 
I fear, in this world. Your consequent reflection 
upon the neglected responsibility of Christ's pro- 
fessed followers, is, I think, the most appropriate 
one ; for it is certain that the languishing of 
Christianity is not on account of God's disposi- 
tion towards the world, but on account of the 
want of faith and zeal in his people. I feel deeply 
my own unworthiness, and how little I appreci- 
ate the worth of perishing souls. It seems only 
fitfully and imperfectly that I realize the pressing 
urgency of the work which Christ has left to his 
disciples ; but when we consider that many who 
are near and dear to us are still unreconciled to 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 87 

God, and are liable at any moment to be called 
away to a final account of their slighted oppor- 
tunities, how can we fail to draw as near as pos- 
sible to our Saviour, and wrestle with him for a 
blessing, not only upon ourselves, but upon others ! 
It is this solemn and often anxious thought which 
excites in me the most earnest and prayerful yearn- 
ing. ! that we may be really joined to Christ, 
and secure his intercession when we plead. Let 
our mutual prayers ascend for our steadfastness, 
and continual growth in grace. 



Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., Nov. 9th, 1858. 
My Dear Cousin : 

Ever since I returned to the Seminary in Sep- 
tember, I have been promising myself the plea- 
sure of writing to you again, but the pressure of 
regular duties has thus far been so much greater 
than last term, that I have been unable to com- 
mand the time. The diminution of correspon- 
dence to which I have been subjected on this ac- 
count is, for myself at least, quite a deprivation, 
but I feel confident of your approval of such a 
motto as " duty before pleasure." 



88 RAND OLPH SAILER. 

In almost every respect I may say that I am 
more pleasantly situated than I was last year. 
My room-mate last year was one whom I had not 
known before, and I was obliged to take my 
chance ; he was moreover not in the same class 
with me, and in other respects we were a good 
deal unlike. But this year my chum is one of 
my own choice, of very congenial tastes and tem- 
perament, and of such high-toned and sterling 
excellence, that I can both respect and love him. 
Then, being in the same class, we are able to study 
and read a good deal in concert, which is not only 
mutually advantageous for comparison of ideas 
and interchange of information, but also effects 
a saving of eyesight, without loss of time,— his 
eyes being affected very similarly to mine. He 
has said that he expects to be benefited from 
rooming with me, by the example of more strict 
habits of method and system than he has hitherto 
cultivated ; but I consider that gain to be very 
small in comparison with that which I expect to 
derive from the influence of his superior qualities 
of disposition and heart. We live together very 
harmoniously, and when he has occasionally been 
obliged to go away for a day or two, I have felt 
the separation keenly. I ought to have said be- 



RAND OLPH SAILER. 89 

fore that his name is Eldridge Mix, and that his 
home is in Atwater, Ohio. 

The hardens of house-keeping of which I com- 
plained so much last year, are happily arranged 
so as to be much less troublesome now. Mv wash- 
erwoman pays attention to all my mending, and, 
moreover, comes once a week to give our rooms 
a thorough cleaning. (No doubt my very neat 
cousin thinks it ought to be much oftener, but 
even this is quite a high standard for students.) 
"We have also a man engaged to attend to our fire 
every morning, and bring up our coal. 

The studies of this term are considerably differ- 
ent from the last. Instead of spending four clays 
in the week wearying over the intricacies of 
Hebrew Grammar, that branch is reduced to two 
days, which are spent principally in reading the 
Hebrew Bible. We have finished the book of 
Joel, and are now engaged upon Judges. It is 
quite interesting. In the Greek Testament, hav- 
ing finished last year the Gospels, we now take a 
part of Acts, and then the Epistles of Paul in their 
chronological order, which shows in a remarkable 
manner the advance of the Apostle from " milk " 
to " strong meat," — at least in his subjects. The 
first letters he wrote were those to the Thessalo- 

8* 



90 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

nians, written from Corinth (Acts xviii, 1) ; and 
next the letter to the Galatians, written when he 
had returned from his second missionary journey 
to Ephesus (Acts xix, 1 and 10). The manner in 
which we study these, comparing the dates when 
they were with the corresponding time in Acts 
(so far as the dates can be ascertained), gives a 
new interest to the whole subject. Our lectures 
in History this term include only the life of Christ, 
and the Church under the Apostles, — that is, to 
the close of the first century. The principal fea- 
ture of our studies, and that which is of most im- 
portance in my eyes, is the course of lectures on 
Doctrinal Theology, to which we devote the 
greater part of this term. Our professor inspires 
entire confidence, and his arrangement and treat- 
ment of the innumerable subjects which come up 
under the head of Theology, strikes me, at least, 
as very masterly. The great central truth of 
Christianity, around which he arranges harmoni- 
ously all the other parts of his system, is " an in- 
carnation in order to a redemption." I have never 
been so much struck with the sublimity of the 
great doctrines of grace. One of Dr. Smith's plans 
for giving his students a greater knowledge and fa- 
miliarity with the subjects upon which he is lee- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 91 

turing, is to require them to write essays on the 
same subjects every week. In these, they may 
express their own views as freely as they please ; 
and after an essay is read, the other students cri- 
ticise it, Dr. Smith himself being present for ap- 
peal and correction. I read my essay a few weeks 
since. The subject assigned me was " Objections 
to Predestination." I have written thus freely 
to you of these things because I thought you 
would perhaps be interested in them, although I 
hardly suppose that anybody else wxmld. 

We have been already favored this year with 
the visits and addresses of several foreign mis- 
sionaries, and the interest of the subject so far 
from diminishing, seems rather to increase. One 
of the most interesting men I have seen for a Ions; 
time was Mr. Meigs, of Ceylon, who has been a 
missionary to India for forty-two years, — longer 
than any other person now in the service of the 
American Board of Foreign Missions. The whole 
of his address contained valuable information, but 
there was one point which I thought of special 
importance. You know it is common with peo- 
ple of the world, and sometimes even with profes- 
sors of religion who oppose foreign missions, to 
ask incredulously, " Will all the heathen be eter- 



92 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

nally punished merely because they have not 
heard the Gospel ? Will not those be saved who 
are doing the best they can, and trying to save 
themselves?" And in connection with these 
questions they cite cases of earnest and devout 
pagans, without the Gospel. Mr. Meigs said that 
he was present at a large meeting of missionaries 
in Madras, where these questions were discussed. 
His own remark was that without pretending to 
decide the question whether, if there were such hea- 
then, they might not be saved, he would say that 
after having lived forty-two years in India, during 
which he had become familiar with all classes of 
the people, and had been particularly on the watch 
for such characters as had been cited, he had never 
been able to find one. They had been all, with-, 
out exception, deliberately and consciously wicked, 
and it is for this disobedience to the law of their 
own consciences that they will be rightfully con- 
demned. He gave a graphic account of the uni- 
versal depravity of the people, among whom, 
nevertheless, the success of the Gospel is very en- 
couraging. We have had also two or three ad- 
dresses from Mr. Vrooman, for five years a mis- 
sionary to China, and now about to return. He 
gave a great deal of new information, and antici- 



RANDOLPH SAILER, 93 

pated a glorious future in China in view of the 
recent events there. 

In our lectures on the life of Christ the other 
day, the question of the motive of Judas for the 
betrayal, came up. There are three opinions about 
it : First, that of covetousness ; but it is argued 
that if it had been the desire of money, the trai- 
tor would certainly have demanded more than 
fifteen dollars for the betrayal of one who was so 
dreaded by the priests and rulers. Second, that 
it was gradually developed hostility, which was 
brought to a crisis by Jesus' rebuke at Bethany 
(Matt, xxvi, 8-16). Third, which is advocated 
by some prominent theologians, is, that it was 
caused by Judas' wavering faith in Christ's Mes- 
siahship, which made him anxious to hurry the 
solution. If Christ was an impostor, then his 
betrayal by the hands of his Apostles would 
bring it to light. But if he was the Messiah, and 
his kingdom, as Judas no doubt supposed, was to 
be a temporal one, then Christ would be com- 
pelled to set it up at once. Our professor thought 
that a combination of the second and third opi- 
nions seemed to answer best the indications of the 
Scripture. He spoke forcibly of the great use 
which the case of Judas is to Christianity. 



94 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

So far as the increase of intellectual knowledge 
is concerned, a student here could scarcely escape 
that ; but I feel more deeply impressed than ever 
that there must be vigor and growth of sanctifi- 
cation in the heart, or everything else is useless. 
Since my return, I am grateful to believe that the 
abundant opportunities here for cultivating the 
growth of grace in the soul have not been entirely 
lost ; yet I am often oppressed with the thought 
of my barrenness. I earnestly ask your sympa- 
thy and prayers, for although there be not much 
of outward temptation here, yet the power of re- 
maining inward depravity is often very manifest. 
My anxiety for the best welfare of those who are 
near and dear to me is undiminished, and I long 
to exert a stronger influence than my feeble efforts 
have thus far had. Let us be importunate in 
prayer for one another in this behalf; and let our 
words and examples show the sincerity and fer- 
vency of our desires. 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 95 



Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., Dec. 7th, 1858. 
Dear Cousin: 

* * * I am much obliged for your congra- 
tulation on my pleasant companionship here, for 
which I continue to be thankful. In some recent 
overcloudings of my sky, I have tested the value 
of sympathy in such a chum as I have ; and al- 
though I have felt deeply that it is only when 
our minds are stayed on Him that we have per- 
fect peace, yet close fellowship with one like- 
minded, to whom we can speak of both trials and 
their solace, is a comfort and a blessing inex- 
pressible. * * * * * * * 

Last Friday, the Rev. Mr. Collyer, of Freehold, 
1ST. J., being obliged to remain in New York un- 
til Monday, came to ask my chum to go down and 
preach for him ; but when he was obliged to de- 
cline, Mr. C. asked me to go. I should have been 
glad to do so, if I had had a sermon written ; but 
the pressure of other duties this term has pre- 
vented me from preparing one at least as I had 
fully intended. Nevertheless, I spent the Sab- 
bath in active evangelical labor, although not so 
formal as regular preaching. You perhaps know 
that Blackwell's Island is in the East River, op- 



96 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

posite the northern part of New York, and that 
a number of the public institutions are built on 
it. The chaplain is always desirous to have our 
students come over and assist him, and last Sab- 
bath I went with my friend Moore. Three or 
four other gentlemen went over to assist, and as 
soon as we arrived the chaplain distributed us to 
the different institutions. I went with a Baptist 
brother up to the lunatic asylum. A congrega- 
tion of about two hundred men and women was 
gathered ; my associate preached to them, and I 
made a short address, to which they were all 
deeply attentive, and some affected to tears. Of 
course only those who were quiet and able in some 
degree to understand, were brought together, and 
yet it was very sad to look at them. I was next 
sent alone to one department of the female hospi- 
tal, where I read from the Bible, spoke and offered 
prayer in two large rooms or wards. They were 
filled by long ranges of low beds ; some of the 
women were dressed and sitting up, but most of 
them lay in bed. They all gave strictest atten- 
tion and seemed impressed. I was next sent with 
an old gentleman to the chapel of the Almshouse, 
where we had a regular service, and each of us 
made addresses. Then I rejoined my friend Moore, 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 97 

who had been talking to the women in the Peni- 
tentiary, and we got home about five. It was 
unpleasant on account of the rain and mud, but 
I enjoyed it highly, and shall go again when I 
have opportunity. There is much encouragement 
to labor, even among these outcasts. 



Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., March 5th, 1859. 

I felt very deeply, my dear cousin, your words 
of aspiration, and encouragement and hope, in 
view of our privileges as Christians. I have never 
been led to contemplate them more solemnly than 
within a few weeks past, and I trust that I have 
been aided to a fresh and more unreserved conse- 
cration to the cause of our Master. Never before 
has the gloriousness of working for Him more 
completely filled my soul, and never have I been 
more desirous to fill the brief probation allotted 
me on earth in spending and being spent in such 
a service. The prospect of being thus made use of, 
has raised me from deep depression, and supported 
me in sorrow ; and I pray earnestly that I may 
be kept in such a spirit for all my work on earth, 
whenever God shall be pleased to assign it to me. 



98 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

In chastening and in the strengthening and re- 
newal of Christian purpose, I have recurred often 
to my opportunities of Christian communion with 
you, and have wished to be encouraged again by 
your elevated devotedness. Should you not re- 
ceive it as a rightful tribute, and one that should 
animate you thankfully to renewed exertion, that 
aspirations for a higher holiness and more com- 
plete sanctification, suggest the words of such 
friends as you ? Such a temper of mind I think 
is a significant and useful test of the influence of 
others. I ask your continued prayers; for my 
bright prospect of hope is often obscured by clouds 
of gloom and temptation, and I may not for a 
moment intermit the conflict with sin. Yet we 
should be ever confident, for lives hid in Christ 
are ever safe against all foes. 

Our studies here are as interesting and absorb- 
ing as ever. I think I mentioned to you the plan 
adopted by our Professor of Theology, of requir- 
ing essays from the students upon the subjects of 
his lectures, which are read before the class and 
then discussed. He assigned one to me a few 
weeks ago, and its preparation took all the time 
I could spare from my regular duties. I was con- 
sequently obliged to reduce my letter- writing to 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 99 

the smallest possible amount ; but having finished 
the essay last week, I have taken the earliest op- 
portunity to reply to a number of letters which 
have been received in the meantime and remained 
unanswered. 

In our Greek Testament, having finished first 
and second Thessalonians and Galatians, we are 
now almost through first Corinthians. I have 
found it very instructive and satisfactory. In the 
Hebrew Bible we have been reading for some time 
Isaiah, which is very hard wx>rk. Dr. Skinner 
gives us lectures on Pastoral Theology, Prayer, 
etc. If I thought it would do you any good, I 
would give you his conclusive arguments against 
the use of liturgies ; but on the whole, you will 
probably do quite as well without knowing them 
— although I hardly think that every one does. 
In our systematic Theology, Dr. Smith has most 
lately been treating, in a most interesting man- 
ner, of the temptation, fall and depravity of man. 
Doubtless, in thinking upon these doctrines, your 
mind has started many puzzling inquiries, but I 
do not believe you have imagined one-half the 
curious objections and questions to which they 
have given rise. Some of these mysteries, of 
course, are above reason, but so far as they can be 

Lore. 



100 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

known, we must of course learn them in order to 
answer doubts. They are not discussed as bare 
dry doctrines, but as having a vital connection 
with the proper presentation of the truth, so that 
it shall be most effective upon the minds of sinful 
men. 

My Sabbath-school class consists now of seven 
boys. I have been much discouraged in my at- 
tempts to teach them, but of late have felt renewed 
responsibility and interest, and see the need of 
thoughtfulness and prayer in my preparation. ! 
that the Holy Spirit would take some word of 
their instruction and make it of saving power 
upon their youthful hearts, so that even now they 
might become the children of God, in an everlast- 
ing covenant. I recollect the privilege accorded 
me, when in Moorestown, of having your model 
class, and will be very happy indeed to return the 
compliment, if you will come to New York. 

Connected with Dr. Parker's Church is a Mis- 
sion Sabbath-school in a distant section of the 
city. The children, of course, are of a poor class, 
and their parents are among those who do not 
often hear the preaching of the Gospel. These 
people are invited to come every Thursday even- 
ing and every Sabbath evening to a religious meet- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 101 

ing held purposely for their benefit. I have lately 
been made one of those who take charge of the 
meetings on Sabbath evenings, and I trust that 
much good may be accomplished in that com- 
paratively heathen neighborhood. "When there 
are hundreds and thousands living in this city, 
crowded with churches, who can scarcely be per- 
suaded to listen to the Gospel, let us not wonder 
that heathen nations, more wicked and infinitely 
more ignorant, are only slowly subdued. Yet in 
both cases, there is great encouragement, and the 
word of God vindicates its power as the conquer- 
ing sword of the Spirit. Only more effort is 
needed. I am tired of the comparatively stagnant 
Christianity of our day, and long for the return 
of the apostolic days, when not only the Apostles, 
but all Christians " went everywhere preaching 
the word." I confess with deep humility, that 
there is no one who has less right to speak thus 
than myself, for I am conscious of most inexcu- 
sable neglect and unfaithfulness. 

The subject of foreign missions continues to 
grow in interest. Some discussions which we 
have had upon it in our Seminary prayer meet- 
ings, have been deeply impressive, in view of many 
recent facts as presented by professors and stu- 

9* 



102 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

dents. But on this subject I could talk to you 
better than write. 

You have perhaps heard of the preaching which 
is established every Sabbath evening in the Opera 
House here. I have attended several times, and 
I think you would rejoice to see an audience of 
four or five thousand people, many of them being 
of that class who would scarcely attend regular 
church services, gathered together to hear the 
plainest and most urgent presentation of the 
Gospel. 



The following letter to a sister, also gives some 
account of his duties : 

Union Theological Seminary, N. Y., March 1st, 1858. 
My Dear Sister : 

* * * I am just now unusually busy ; 
on Wednesday afternoon I am to deliver my essay 
on the Pleasure of Receiving Letters, and the 
same evening I must be prepared to take a lead- 
ing part in the debate. Next "Wednesday evening 
I must have another essay (not yet begun) for oui 
Rhetorical Society, and soon after that our Pro- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 103 

fessor of Theology requires from me a dissertation 
on " Atheism : the Causes of it." In addition to 
these, there is a prospect that I shall be called 
upon to make an address in Dr. Parker's Church, 
on the occasion of our next Sunday-school anni- 
versary, so you see that I have my hands full, but 
it is very good practice. 

My studies have continued to grow in interest, 
and even the Hebrew, which was at first so diffi- 
cult and obscure, I now study with zest. It is 
very laborious, however, and keeps me closely 
confined at study four days in the week; the 
studies of the two other days require less time. 
In Hebrew, besides learning the grammar, we have 
translated three or four chapters of Genesis. You 
will perhaps be interested to know that the great- 
est Biblical scholars now hold that Moses did not 
write the early chapters of Genesis at first hand, 
but that he incorporated into his narrative docu- 
ments which were much more ancient than his 
time, although, of course, inspired. The first ac- 
count, for instance, includes the first chapter and 
three verses of the second ; the next begins with 
the fourth verse and goes to the end of the chap- 
ter. This is made clear by the difference of Ian- 



104 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

guage in the original Hebrew, and from other 
considerations. "We continue to read the Greek 
Harmony of the Gospels, and some of Dr. Robin- 
son's explanations are new and interesting. In sys- 
tematic Theology we have just made a beginning, 
and are considering the arguments for the exist- 
ence of a personal God. You would be surprised 
at the number and ability of the writers who have 
disputed ibis. 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 105 



AN ESSAY WRITTEN AT THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 

March 3d, 1858. 



PLEASURES OP THE LETTER. 



It has been said that the great movements of 
God in nature are not utilitarian, but are designed 
equally to gratify our sense of the beautiful. He 
made lights in the firmament of heaven, not only 
" to divide the day from the night, and to be for 
signs and for seasons, and for days and years," but 
also that the souls of his creatures might be lost 
in sublime contemplation of the heavenly host. 
He giveth rain and fruitful seasons that our barns 
may be filled with plenty, and that man may be 
kept alive upon the earth ; but no less that ripened 
fruits and waving harvests might minister plea- 
sure to our senses. The principle extends to the 
minute details of Divine economy, so that in 
many things where the hand of Providence is 



106 RAND OLPH SAILER. 

clearly seen, we hesitate to say whether the use- 
ful, or the pleasurable, predominates. 

In the marvelous gift of spoken and written 
language, the Creator provided means seemingly 
indispensable to the furtherance of his plans among 
the children of men ; but amidst the mighty ends 
of usefulness which speaking and writing were 
created to subserve, what innumerable pleasures 
have been graciously intertwined! What rich 
delights, as well as grave uses in the letter, for 
instance, which bridges the miles of distance, and 
ignores, for a time, the pain of absence. 

No one will dispute the claim which the letter 
makes to a place of dignity and importance in 
history. Ever since the time when David wrote 
a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah, 
and the days when Artaxerxes the king granted 
Nehemiah letters to the governors beyond the 
river, it has been a potent instrument in the diplo- 
macy of kings and the revolution of empires. And 
when the most precious mysteries of our faith 
were to be handed down to the countless genera- 
tions of centuries, the inspired Apostle indicated 
at once the mode of the Divine communication 
and his own fulfillment of the task : " I have writ- 
ten a letter unto you, in few words." 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 107 

But it is not of these grave uses that we feel 
qualified to speak. It is of the letter as the fa- 
miliar and cherished minister to the pleasures of 
our every-day life. Without pausing to analyze 
the philosophy of Campbell's assertion that " dis- 
tance lends enchantment to the view," it will be 
sufficient here to recognize the truth and wide- 
spread application of the principle which it in- 
volves. Many inferences conspire to give to the 
letters of our absent friends a dignity and inte- 
rest which their merelv verbal communications, 
however important, fail to command ; and the 
writers themselves stand before the mind's vision, 
through the medium of their written thoughts, 
with a charm of clearness and perfection which is 
unknown and unfelt in the familiarity of daily 
contact. In this, we speak no mere theory ; semi- 
nary life enables us to bring the assertion to a 
practical test. 

Steady footsteps on every floor and in all the 
passages, breaking upon the stillness of morning 
study, announce the arrival of the mail. Study 
is not so absorbing but that each may listen and 
calculate the nearness of approach to his own door, 
and the interruption which brings a letter is 
counted no annoyance. The mind has been bent 



108 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

like a bow of steel to the intricacies of Hebrew, 
or the more perplexing intricacies of Theology ; 
but now the string is thrown off, and the mind 
turns with a glad rebound to a letter from home. 
No post mark was needed to indicate whence 
it came. It is penned by the hand that upheld 
our feeblest footsteps, and the direction says " to 
my son ,? as clearly as the words within. Who 
can read without emotion words of sympathy and 
counsel from a venerated father ? The dignity of 
his manliness fails to suppress the overflowing of 
his paternal love, and there is an unreserved full- 
ness of communion which we have known but 
rarely in his presence. He saj^s nothing of the 
heat and burden of the day, but we know that 
they fall upon him every hour, and we learn with 
impressive force a lesson of cheerful labor. His 
letter is closed, but there are yet a few lines, their 
lightly touched characters contrasting strangely 
with the strong bold hand that preceded them. 
And as we read of some provision for our com- 
fort, or some message of love and remembrance 
from a mother's hand, whose eyes are not dimmed 
with tears and whose heart does not swell with 
renewed and earnest thankfulness for the bless- 
ing of such parents ? If there had been anything 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 109 

wanting to the completeness of our consecration, 
or any flagging in the earnestness of our prepara- 
tory work, what earthly stimulus is more power- 
ful than this consciousness of a father's loving 
expectation and a mother's confiding prayers ? 

Again the letter is from home, and the recogni- 
tion of a younger brother's hand crowds the mind 
with associations of interest. We remember the 
unclouded thoughtfulness of our boyhood with 
him, and the school-days when he was both our 
companion and pupil ; and how, as we came first 
to meet the claims of life, we looked with affec- 
tionate solicitude upon him who was to come after 
us, and prayed that he too might seek a refuge 
from the world's storm, and a covert from its 
tempest. 

We trembled when the allurements of life 
seemed to attract his adventurous spirit, and re- 
membered our own temptations ; and in all changes 
and separations, fraternal love asserted its natural 
prerogative of praye.rful guardianship. In his 
letters, the exuberance and gaiety of youth have 
never displaced affection and confidence, but now 
we note their marked softening of tone, a perva- 
ding seriousness and closer sympathy, a growing 

respect and interest in holy things, until at last 
10 



110 RAND OLPH SAILER, 

there comes the confession, as yet too trembling 
even for a mother's ear, of the awakening soul, 
the fierce strife of contending emotions, the deep 
and agonized concern, the faint reluctant hope, 
the anxious inquiry, the glad fulfillment of all 
our prayers ! We bend in tearful recognition of 
the goodness of God, and we lift our hearts to 
Him with a gratitude too big for words. With 
what prayer and carefulness, what earnest striv- 
ing to come very near our Saviour, and gain His 
spirit, do we prepare to send words of joyful en- 
couragement and counsel ; and as we turn again, 
in the radiance of such a mark of mercy from our 
God, to the studies which are to strengthen us in 
pressing that mercy upon lost souls, what clear- 
ing of ourselves, yea, what fear, yea, what vehe- 
ment desire, yea, what zeal is wrought in us. 

And now there comes a letter whose very ap- 
pearance provokes an expectant smile. It is from 
a college chum whose superscription never fails 
to cover an epistle of liveliest imagery and most 
luxuriant humor, — the sparkling of intellect and 
wit. We do not dare to open it until we have 
closed the ventilator, lest neighboring brethren 
should be disturbed in their absorbing studies, 
and before sitting down to its perusal we conceive 



RANDOLPH SAILER. Ill 

it necessary to ask the indulgence of an amiable 
chum in a few minutes' departure from our wanted 
stillness. We read, with gradually relaxing fea- 
tures, the characteristic narration of a ludicrous 
incident, until the ridiculous catastrophe taxes 
all our risible powers in an uncontrollable and 
prolonged explosion of mirth. He touches with 
a master hand the events of our undergraduate 
experience, so rich in reminiscences of the gro- 
tesque, and in spite of ourselves we laugh unre- 
strainedly, and for the fiftieth time, at the very 
college joke about which we have been so long 
trying to feel some contrition. Apt quotations 
and covert allusions arouse a swarm of memories, 
and our accumulated merriment finds vent in a 
succession of paroxysms which emulate the infi- 
nite series. We fold the letter with convulsed 
features and tearful eyes, and not without a due 
appreciation of the value of such a genial and 
hearty contribution to animal spirits. But som- 
ber reflection tempers our subsiding hilarity. 
With all the attraction of our friend's manly 
friendship, and all the charm of his brilliant 
gaiety, there is a vital omission which presses it- 
self sadly upon us. We reflect that his mental 
powers and disciplined energies, the gift of the 



112 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

Infinite One, have never yet bowed in humble alle- 
giance to the Giver ; that the countless blessings 
purchased by the Son of God have not won love 
and gratitude to the prevailing Intercessor. "We 
lift a renewed prayer for the sovereign interfe- 
rence of the Holy Spirit, and in the light and 
strength of it, we are able to write earnestly and 
pleadingly of our Master's claims, and of the joys 
of His service. 

But there are letters with no such void as this. 
There comes now one which we can read and re- 
read with pleasure unalloyed. He who com- 
menced with us the fight of Christian faith, who 
shared with us its early hopes and fears, with 
whom we took sweet counsel in every question of 
conscience and duty, and by whose genial sympa- 
thy we have been ever strengthened, has formed 
a bond of brotherhood which the closeness of a 
merely worldly friendship cannot approach. In 
the first timid and stealthy efforts to prove our 
faith by our works, as well as in loftiest medita- 
tions upon the mysteries of the Unsearchable, he 
has been ever confidant and companion ; and we 
know that the words which now come to us are 
the deep soundings of a heart beating not only in 
kindly affection towards us, but in holy unison 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 113 

with the impulses of the Spirit of God. Said a 
friend, writing from a sister school of the pro- 
phets, and urging the renewal of an interrupted 
correspondence: "You know that letter-writing 
is a means of grace." Who will deny this, that 
has rejoiced to find his own experience mirrored 
in the heart of another, — his own temptations met 
and overcome, his own richest blessings fully 
shared ! "Who shall say that there may not and 
must not be written upon this pleasure, as upon 
all others, " Holiness to the Lord." The commu- 
nion of the saints assumes a precious reality and 
significance when the servants of a common mas- 
ter thus share one another's joys, and bear one 
another's burdens, so fulfilling the law of Christ. 
I must needs stop where my experience ends, 
and I can but regret that this subject had not 
fallen into the hands of some other of the breth- 
ren qualified to dwell upon the delights of a cor- 
respondence in comparison with which the best 
letters of our male friends are said to be tame and 
insipid. 

10* 



114 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

Mr. Sailer had passed two years at the Semi- 
nary, one more being necessary to complete the 
Theological course. He had made rapid progress, 
reading Hebrew with ease, and writing it also ; 
then came the event which, although changing 
his future occupation, balking him of his heart's 
desire, yet did not prevent him from carrying out 
the true longing of his soul, that of doing good 
to others." His eyes, which had for some time 
been failing, now gave out entirely. He was 
obliged to relinquish all study, and seek good 
medical attendance ; consequently he left the Semi- 
nary in the autumn of 1859, and was for some 
time under the care of Dr. Isaac Hayes, the emi- 
nent oculist of Philadelphia. But the improve- 
ment, so earnestly hoped for by all, did not occur. 
This affection of the eyes clung to him ever after- 
wards. Never from that time was he able either 
to read or write for any length of time. 

The Rev. A. D. Moore, one of his class-mates, 
says : — " Many of the most pleasant recollections 
of Seminary life are associated with him. I was 
one of the fortunate four or five to whom he daily 
read his phonographic reports of the lectures of 
the preceding day. "While seated around him at 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 115 

the table, he would slowly read his notes, and 
then patiently wait until we had written them 
down. The recollection of this brings up vividly 
before me his generous nature, his accommodating 
spirit, his genial smile, and his warm heart. He 
no doubt would have made one of the very best 
preachers. His earnestness, his piety, his warm 
nature, his tireless energy, his discretion, and 
above all, his love for the souls of men, would 
undoubtedly have gained him great success in the 
work of the Lord. His mind was of a superior 
order ; he would grasp a subject immediately. He 
never needed explanation ; he comprehended you 
instantly. He was a most excellent scholar, took 
much pride in preparing for recitation, and al- 
ways sustained himself well in the class-room. As 
a writer he was smooth, easy, graceful. In speak- 
ing, or in debate, he was always so refined, and 
chaste, and careful in the choice of his words, that 
he would win you over by his manner as well as 
by his arguments. His style of speaking would 
have been a power in the pulpit." 

The Rev. H. W. Ballantine, of Marietta, Ohio, 
says : — u His character as a student was such as 
to command respect. He was accurate and con- 
scientious in scholarship as in everything; was 



116 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

always prepared with his lessons, but, being very 
modest, was seldom heard in the class-room ex- 
cept w^hen spoken to. His writing and speaking 
were always simple, unaffected, clear and sensible, 
with no attempt at ornament, nor straining for 
effect. The impression of him which will last 
longest in the memory of his class-mates, is of his 
uniform cheerful courteousness in intercourse, 
along with irreproachable piety. Never heard I 
a word of dislike expressed concerning him. I 
do not think he gave offense to any in anything 
throughout his Seminary course. So in his piety, 
none ever heard anything low, or vulgar, or lack- 
ing in reverence from him. He was punctual at 
the class prayer meetings, and ready to bear his 
part. Punctuality and promptness were indeed 
characteristic of him, and neatness of person, room, 
books, everything." 

Rev. Eldridge Mix, another of his class, writes 
as follows : — " At the basis of all, in his character 
and life, was religion. It was the animating and 
controlling element of his every-day life. In few 
persons have I seen it so beautifully exemplified. 
He was genial and sunny, yet firm and inflexible 
always in his adherence to right. He was mirth- 
ful in manner and conversation, yet ever pure and 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 117 

elevated in thought and feeling. He was a man 
of much prayer, and of diligent study of God's 
word in a devotional way, but never obtruded his 
piety upon others in these respects. He was one 
who was ever solicitous for the spiritual welfare 
of others, and diligent in endeavor for this object, 
but it was never mentioned, and might have es- 
caped the observation of even his intimate friends. 

" With this religious basis as a foundation of 
character and life, there were combined some of 
the finest qualities of mind and heart. He was 
one of the most diligent and faithful students, and 
there was a certain healthy, symmetrical develop- 
ment of his powers of mind, which were origi- 
nally of a high order, and such an equipoise and 
easy command, that his studies seemed always a 
delight to him. He was never fretted and wor- 
ried by them, but always seemed in his element 
when engaged with them. He was possessed of 
a remarkably clear and accurate intellect in its 
perceptions, and in its power to frame, and ex- 
press the same to others. He was an acknowl- 
edged leader of his class intellectually, and was 
regarded as one who gave great promise of suc- 
cess in the ministry. 

" He was ever overflowing with wit and humor. 



118 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

This mingled itself with his studies and daily 
duties in such a manner as not to hinder their 
faithful discharge, but rather to help it, for it 
served to keep him in a bright and happy frame 
of mind. This element in his disposition made 
him a very choice companion. It was contagi 
ous. No one could be with him from day to day 
and not feel its influence in such a way as to be 
greatly benefited by it. In our walks and talks 
together, we were always very light-hearted and 
happy, chiefly because he was of such a tempera- 
ment. This would have made him very success- 
ful as a minister, especially with the young, pre- 
senting religion to them divested of all gloom, 
and yet without levity. 

" He was a man of most thorough and rigid 
system in everything. And yet he was not seem- 
ingly fettered by it. It was partly a native gift, 
and partly a matter of training, and his rigid 
thoroughness and exactness seemed to sit easily 
upon him. It enabled him to accomplish a great 
amount of labor. What he performed was com- 
pletely done, and needed not afterwards to be 
gone over again. He made himself possessor of 
the fruits of his labors as he went along. 

" In one of his letters to me after entering upon 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 119 

business life, he writes : — c The picture which you 
draw of your happy pastorate, even with its la- 
bors, causes me a sigh of regret ; for while I have 
considerable taste for business pursuits, the min- 
istry was my real choice, and still holds my first 
affections.' He seemed to resign himself quietly, 
however, to the Lord's will, and to enter upon 
the duties to which the business in which he en- 
gaged called him, with just the same spirit of self- 
consecration, and desire to honor Christ, as would 
have characterized him if he had gone into the min- 
istry. His letters to me always breathed a spirit 
of piety that was refreshing, showing that he did 
not suffer the world to intrude upon his heart, 
and draw him away from the love and service of 
God. 

" I cherish his memory with deep affection, feel- 
ing that every remembrance of him is precious 
and inspiring. I love to recall his excellences, 
and hold them before me for imitation, and shall 
heartily rejoice if at the last I shall find myself 
to have attained as much of growth in grace and 
in preparation for eternity, as it seems to me he 
had reached ere the ' home call' greeted his ears." 



120 RANDOLPH SAILER. 



THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HIS 
FAMILY WHILE AT THE SEMINARY. 



#**#*■* The mos t striking circum- 
stance in my experience during the past week has 
been the cold, which I mentioned when writing 
last Monday, and which was then in its incipiency. 
Other pressing duties prevented me from giving 
that attention to the fight which its importance 
demanded, so that the odds increased very rapidly 
in favor of the cold, and by Monday evening I 
was so completely and evidently used up that the 
most enthusiastic admirer of my " science" would 
have felt compelled to hand over the stakes. For 
about forty-eight hours I was more severely pun- 
ished than I recollect ever to have been before by 
this particular antagonist. My countenance was 
disfigured, my nose swollen, and the stream from 
my eyes and nose was like " the flow of Iser, roll- 
ing rapidly." It seemed to be a raging influenza. 
" Albeit unused to the melting mood," the pro- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 121 

fessors must have thought that for once I was 
deeply affected by their expositions and lectures ; 
and although my chum's conduct is so blameless 
as scarcely ever to excite my parental solicitude, 
yet during those forty-eight hours, I was obliged 
frequently to talk to him "like a father, with 
tears in my eyes." I took for a remedy, as usual, 
two handkerchiefs a day; but these being una- 
vailing, one of my sympathizing friends induced 
me to swallow a glass of lager beer, which I took 
with the most heroic self-denial. It was not un- 
til Wednesday evening, however, that there was 
any favorable change. The weather on that even- 
ing was very mild, and our fire gave the room a 
high temperature. My bed-clothes remained at 
cold weather thickness, and my night-gown, as 
you know, is not made of tissue. Adding to these 
facts the circumstance that I took some violent 
exercise just before getting into bed, and you will 
not be surprised to hear that I soon found myself 
in an unpremeditated sweat, which began at once 
to dispute the championship with the cold. The 
contest was a severe one, and as I was an inte- 
rested party, they did not hesitate to keep me 
awake to watch it. I retired at eleven, and 

counted the clock strike twelve, one, two, three, 
11 



122 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

four. Towards five, the cold had manifestly got 
the worst of it and succumbed. 

I dismissed the sweat with one of my quilts, 
and with thanks, and then got about two hours' 
sleep. The cold lingered around the premises for 
two or three days longer, but in evident feeble- 
ness and discomfiture, and afraid to make another 
attack. 



Mr. Sailer at this time applied for the post of 
colporteur for the American Sunday-School Union. 
Having received his appointment, he left for the 
field of his labors in Knoxville, Tennessee, the 
salary being one dollar a day, and an allowance 
at the rate of forty dollars a year for traveling ex- 
penses. His duty was organizing Sunday-schools, 
and visiting and revisiting those already under 
way. During this period the record shows that 
he was active and successful, as during those five 
months he organized twenty-five new schools, 
numbering one hundred and eighty-three teachers 
and over eight hundred scholars, visited and 
aided sixteen schools numbering one hundred and 
twenty-one teachers and seven hundred and eighty 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 123 

scholars, visited two hundred and thirty-one fami- 
lies, and traveled on his field 1178 miles. His 
letters to the Committee " indicate great devotion 
to his work ;" and while doing all this he could 
not read, but wrote by the aid of an apparatus 
sent from the Blind Asylum of Philadelphia. 

His duties in Tennessee, in which he very much 
delighted, were suddenly terminated by a serious 
accident which occurred in Knoxville. By a 
strange mishap he fell at night into a cellar, sprain- 
ing an ankle, and was confined to his room for 
several weeks. During the period of his illness, 
he sent his resignation to the Sunday-School 
Union, but it was not accepted. "While in Knox- 
ville, he stayed with Professor M. C. Butler. An 
account of his life while there has been kindly 
furnished by this gentleman, as follows : 

" Mr. Randolph Sailer, as agent for the Ameri- 
can Sunday-School Union for East Tennessee, be- 
came a member of my family as a boarder, while 
in Knoxville, his headquarters, in April, 1859, 
and remained with us till the latter part of May, 
1860. Of urbane and winning manners, of genial 
disposition, of rare literary culture, of a rich joy- 
ous humor, united with a quick, sparkling, but 
ever kind and tender wit : all these brilliant natu- 



124 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

ral qualities permeated and vivified by a devoted 
and cheerful piety. He soon became to myself 
and wife as a brother beloved, and we being of 
New England birth and education, and but a few 
years his senior, and of like religious faith, with 
a general correspondence of views upon political 
and social subjects, a perfectly free and unre- 
strained social intercourse existed between us, as 
there was no person living whom we felt we knew 
more perfectly than Mr. Sailer, and it was our oft 
expressed opinion then and since, that Mr. Sailer's 
character was the most complete and faultless one 
within the circle of our acquaintances. His piety 
was of a peculiarly joyous and cheerful type. As 
a Sunday-school missionary he was eminently 
faithful, laborious and systematic, keeping his 
official business and memoranda so compact, that 
it required but little time to make up his monthly 
reports, causing his stay with us from time to 
time to be much shorter than we wished. We 
assisted him in organizing several schools in this 
vicinity, heard his statements of the object of the 
American Sunday-School Union, and of the plans 
of the Society for accomplishing those objects. 
His answers to inquiries, and his earnest ap- 
peal to parents and others in behalf of the reli- 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 125 

gious education of the young, were quite happy 
and effective, except that perhaps a less scho- 
larly style of address would have been more fully 
appreciated by some of his uncultivated audi- 
ences. He could not so far throw off the restraints 
of a highly classical culture, as to address a Ten- 
nessee country gathering in the most effective 
manner ; but he readily gained the good will and 
confidence of the plain, rude, but kind-hearted 
people of this region. "While much of the society 
of this large town is of a highly refined and cul- 
tivated character, many families of the more re- 
mote settlements are wholly unacquainted with 
the customs and manners of refined society. 
4 Stranger, say/ was the frequent invitation to 
Mr. Sailer to ask a blessing at the family table ; 
and he sometimes slept in a rude chamber over 
the family room, to which he gained access by a 
ladder, and through the cracks of whose unwashed 
floor he could observe the preparation for break- 
fast, and relieve his host from the trouble of call- 
ing, 4 Stranger, breakfast is ready.' On one oc- 
casion, rising in the morning and inquiring of his 
host for the wash basin, as it was not standing, as 
was usually the case, on a rude form or bench at 

the back door, the man replied that * he kept no 
n* 



126 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

concern on purpose for that, but he could go down 
to the creek (pointing to one a few rods distant), 
and I believe I will just go along too, for my old 
woman has not yet got breakfast ready, and I 
have not washed for some time.' They went to 
the creek and washed, and Mr. Sailer furnished 
him with a towel, for his friend kept no 4 concern' 
for that purpose either. These are extreme cases, 
but in such families Mr. Sailer made himself at 
home, gained their good will and confidence, in- 
terested them in his great work, refined and ele- 
vated their conception of cultivated manhood, by 
his easy natural elegance, and left them amid 
many benedictions and invitations to come again. 
His description of characters he met with, of 
scenes in families and assemblies, of rude and 
senseless sermons, were exceedingly amusing, but 
entirely free from the tone and manner which are 
too often indulged in by the gifted and favored 
when speaking of the poor and lowly. The lis- 
tener, while convulsed with laughter at his hu- 
morous stories, could see that his great Christian 
heart beat with sympathy and pity for those who 
were the subjects of his anecdotes. 

" Another noble trait of Mr. Sailer's character, 
as exhibited in his work and historv here, was 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 127 

his sensitiveness with regard to the honorable and 
the right. People unacquainted with the jeal- 
ousies and suspicions to which missionaries and 
traveling agents from the North were subject in 
those days, especially in times of political excite- 
ment, can but faintly realize the difficulties sur- 
rounding Mr. Sailer in his work. During the ex- 
citement occasioned by the John Brown raid at 
Harper's Ferry, in September, 1859, he could not 
bear the idea of being suspected of any wrong, of 
being looked upon with an eye of distrust. At the 
very height of this excitement he was laboring 
at the county seat of one of our most populous 
counties, which at that time was full of lawyers 
and others in attendance upon the court then in 
session. He noticed a studious coldness and re- 
serve toward himself on the part of the lawyers 
from this city, who had formerly been very cor- 
dial ; all eyes were turned upon him as he passed 
in and out of the hotel, and through the streets. 
He overheard people inquiring about himself, and 
at last it was hinted that he might be a confede- 
rate of John Brown's, under the guise of being a 
Sunday-school missionary. His pleasant, frank 
and sincere answer and manner at once satisfied 
the jealous party, but Mr. Sailer came home quite 



128 HANDOLPH SAILER. 

broken in spirit. After much thought, and the 
encouragement of friends, he again mounted his 
faithful Silas (as he called his horse), and sallied 
forth in his great work, feeling that he could not 
abandon it, thinking of the c glory it would bring 
to God, and the intellectual and spiritual bless- 
ings it would bring to the people.' " 

Upon his recovery, Mr. Sailer returned to Phil- 
adelphia in the spring of 1860, and had his eyes 
examined, when their condition was found to be 
such as rendered further progress in study impos- 
sible. With what sadness this decision of his 
medical adviser was received, no words can tell. 
His friends, Messrs. Powers and Weightman, now 
gave him the position of traveling representative 
of their house, his duties being such that they 
could be faithfully discharged without affecting 
his eyes. He labored in the interest of the firm 
from 1860 to 1866, in this capacity as well as 
others of a more important and confidential cha- 
racter. In January, 1866, he was taken into 
partnership. On being told that the position he 
now occupied (being a member of one of the most 
important chemical firms in the United States) 
would insure his future welfare, and no doubt 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 129 

result in his becoming a wealthy man, his reply 
was, "I care only for money for the power it 
gives me of doing good." This was but the hon- 
est expression of that wish which was still ever 
near his heart. In his intercourse with the clerks 
of the house, and its army of employees, he was 
always genial and kind, having a pleasant word, 
and a never-to-be-forgotten smile for every one. 
He always seemed to have the welfare of those 
around him, or those with whom he was thrown 
in daily intercourse, in quiet consideration. Some- 
times, as his duties would require, he would go 
to a clerk at his desk, and with his hand upon 
his shoulder, in a low, well-modulated and feel- 
ing voice, recite a stanza or two of Longfellow's 
Excelsior. 

No one who has listened to his rendering of 
that beautiful poem can fail at this day to remem- 
ber the peculiar effect which its recital had upon 
the hearer. Even in the midst of the busy scene 
around, one seemed to be translated to another 
sphere for the time. 

In his business intercourse no one could have 
told of that intense and deep religious feeling 
which was the underlying stratum of his charac- 
ter, for Mr. Sailer never pressed his religious views 



130 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

upon others in the common walks of life, how- 
ever great was his energy in this direction within 
the walls of his church or Sunday-school, or in 
the precincts of their sphere in the outer world. 

He was an ardent business man, never flagging 
or flinching his duties. At times, after becom- 
ing one of the firm, it became necessary for him 
to travel also. He would go from Philadelphia to 
Boston, or to New Orleans or Chicago, with that 
quietness which characterized all his movements, 
attending carefully and promptly to the business 
in charge, and making during these visits many 
warm friends among the druggists. His name, 
wherever he went, became the synonym of fair 
and honest dealing, and he was held up by many 
as a pattern for the young, and as a good example 
for all. 

He was very sensitive to any rudeness on the 
part of those with whom he had business to trans- 
act. The only occasion upon which we have ever 
known him to be the least excited, or appear 
really angry, was after having been assailed with 
rough language by an official of an Express Com- 
pany : it is fair to presume that this person was 
rebuked in some gentle and dignified way. 

His influence upon the drug trade was a very 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 131 

good one : frowning upon anything tainted with 
fraud and duplicity, and expressing his views upon 
all occasions in a bold and fearless manner : hav- 
ing censure ever ready when it was merited, and 
earnestly insisting that no praise was due for be- 
ing upright and steadfast in business. 

Among some of the laws passed by the Con- 
gress of the United States, was one which was 
particularly oppressive upon most chemical manu- 
facturers and all druggists and apothecaries. This 
was the revenue act, placing a tax of two dollars 
upon a gallon of whisky, or nearly double this 
upon its derivative alcohol. The latter article is 
used in the manufacture of quinine, chloroform, 
spirits of niter, in all the tinctures and essences 
used in medicine, in varnishes, and is, in fact, of 
primary importance, as a so-called raw material, 
or adjunct, in many other preparations. The tax 
proved a difficult one to collect, and was evaded 
by subterfuge or fraud by many. A gallon of 
alcohol, which would sell in the market for a dol- 
lar and a quarter, should have brought over four 
dollars if the tax had been honestly paid. Mr. 
Sailer took strong grounds against this violation 
of law, and in order to combat it, with others or- 
ganized among the drug and chemical trade a kind 



132 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

of league, binding themselves not to purchase 
alcohol upon which the tax had not been paid. 
He felt that besides the wrong of countenancing 
the frauds upon the revenue, the true way to re- 
peal an obnoxious law was to let it become op- 
pressive to the people. In this good work he was 
assisted by many prominent men of the trade, and 
through the action of the Philadelphia Drug Ex- 
change, of which his firm was a member and 
himself a director, the matter was brought to the 
consideration of Congress. Mr. Sailer, however, 
was the leading spirit, and indeed all the work, — 
and it was a great labor, — devolved upon him. 
He drew up the statements, wrote the resolutions 
which were passed, and went to Washington 
many times. The powerful expressions used by 
him in the debate upon this subject, are still re- 
membered with admiration by those who heard 
them. Mr. Sailer was sent as a delegate of the 
Drug Exchange to represent them in the so-called 
"Whisky Convention, in 1868, in the city of Wash- 
ington. He was placed upon the committee on 
resolutions, and those drawn up by him were 
adopted by the Convention. In this heterogene- 
ous assembly his scholarship and unflinching in- 
tegrity had particular force. He had the pleasure 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 133 

to see his efforts crowned with success, and to no 
one more than to Randolph Sailer belongs the 
credit of the modification of this demoralizing 
law. 

At home, in the family circle, all his many emi- 
nent traits, talents and virtues seemed to expand 
as a canopy, enveloping and covering all whom 
he loved and held most dear. It was his con- 
stant care to keep alive a warm family attach- 
ment, and an endearing regard one for the other. 
Never a birth-day of his parents, of his brothers 
and sisters, or those of their children came, but 
they received some memento from him. He care- 
fully looked after the success of his brothers in 
their business enterprises, and aided them in every 
consistent and possible way. His letters always 
told of the devoted love of the son and brother. 
It was his habit to take advantage of his business 
holidays to visit relatives living at a distance, and 
he was very earnest in cultivating strong feelings 
of consanguinity. The following extract from a 
letter written when upon a business tour, shows 
how untiring was his religious zeal upon all pro- 
per occasions : 
12 



134 RANDOLPH SAILER 



Decatur, 18th March, 1866. 

W 7T w 7T W "3f 3£ 

"I expected to find at Decatur a large town 
with churches, etc. ; but I forgot that the war 
had been here. The hotel is an ordinary country 
tavern. I was taken at first to a room in a little 
out-house. As the floor was bare, and the cre- 
vices admitted the cold wind, I looked my objec- 
tions, and the intelligent contraband said I might 
prefer a room up-stairs. I was shown up, and or- 
dered a fire, etc., but afterwards found myself 
transferred (on account of the neighborhood, up- 
stairs, of a lady very sick) to a little room open- 
ing upon a back verandah, with a window on the 
front. It has a rag carpet, and the appointments 
are rather cheerless. Since stopping the broken 
window-panes with the pillow, and having a fire 
built in the large fire-place, I have made myself 
quite comfortable. 

" My first desire was to accomplish the full ab- 
lutions to which the sleeping-car and steamboat 
are not favorable ; for which purpose I was fur- 
nished with a piece of yellow soap — a lump like 
a washerwoman's. 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 135 

"My next care was to find a church; but I 
was informed that there were no religious ser- 
vices in the neighborhood, all the churches hav- 
ing been burned with the town. I walked out, 
and found that where the court-house and streets 
of houses had stood, there was only a barren plain, 
covered with scattered bricks. Only four or five 
decent-looking dwellings were left on the out- 
skirts of the town, and a very few new buildings 
have been put up. Of the bridge over the Ten- 
nessee River, only the stone piers are left. A 
rampart runs all around the town — now broken 
in many places, and the ditch filled up. 

" Although the weather was still cool, the sun 
was shining brightly, and I enjoyed the Sabbath 
stillness ; but soon the silence in the presence of 
so much desolation, seemed almost oppressive. A 
few loungers gradually made their appearance at 
the door of the drinking-shop, and occasionally a 
negro passed up or down the road. At the edge 
of the town I found Company D, Fortieth Regi- 
ment Colored Troops, quartered in rude huts. I 
asked some of them whether they had any preach- 
ing or prayer-meeting on Sunday. They said 
they had not had for a long time, but would be 
willing to have any service. I promised to come 



136 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

down in the afternoon, when I might hope to find 

their captain, and ask his consent for the service. 

" Since I have been writing this, I have been 

interrupted by dinner, and it is now after one 

o'clock. I expect to go soon, and will keep this 

letter open to state to you the result. If I am 

allowed, I think I shall give a plain talk from 

the parable of the Prodigal Son. 

* * * * * * * 

" 4 P. M., Philadelphia Time. 

"I have just returned from the service with 
the colored troops. The captain readily gave his 
consent to the services, and proposed to sound his 
bugle in half an hour to assemble the men. In 
that interval I went back to the town and invited 
all the darkies whom I met, to come to the preach- 
ing. At the appointed time the bugle sounded, 
and the men fell into line and marched in order to 
the position I had designated. The captain then 
ordered them to bring their stools, and the whole 
company sat in a semi-circle before me. 

" The company from the town sat outside on 
the branches of trees. The captain brought me 
a chair from his tent, and seats for himself, first 
lieutenant and doctor. Two or three of the men 
had little hymn books, and I asked them to sing 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 137 

at the beginning and close of the service. They 
chose 

' Come ye who love the Lord * 
and 

1 Am I a soldier of the Cross V 

and sang very well. I spoke of the Prodigal Son, 
and with freedom ; and the service was every way 
gratifying (for the men seemed very much inte- 
rested), except that I felt painfully the coldness 
and inefficiency of my manner." 

In May, 1866, Mr. Sailer married Miss Jose- 
phine Pile, daughter of Dr. "Wilson H. Pile, of 
Philadelphia. A son was born to him in May, 
1868, and was named after his tried friend and 
partner, Thomas Henry Powers Sailer. 

On the evening of 11th January, 1869, Mr. 
Sailer left his house to attend a prayer-meeting 
at the chapel in which he was so deeply inte- 
rested. Being a mild, though rainy night, and 
under the impression, no doubt, that he would 
be obliged to walk quite a long distance, he went 
without his overcoat ; the storm increasing, his 
clothing become thoroughly wet, and next day he 
was attacked with pneumonia, which assumed a 

12* 



138 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

violent type. During this illness he was patient 
and uncomplaining, notwithstanding his intense 
suffering. The disease after about ten days was 
allayed, leaving him, however, in a condition of 
excessive weakness and exhaustion, from which 
it was found impossible to raise him. His life 
passed away at eleven o'clock on the morning of 
22d January, 1869. 

The following extract from a memorial sermon 
delivered by the Rev. "W". H. Hutton, Pastor of 
the Greenwich Street Presbyterian Church, gives 
an account of his labors in building up that 
church : 

" "When he entered the employ of Messrs. Powers 
& "Weightman, after returning from Tennessee, 
he co-operated heartily in the movements of Pine 
Street Church, and again took a class in the Sab- 
bath-school. He, in company with a few others, 
started the ' Young People's Prayer-Meeting,' an 
instrumentality very efficient for good among the 
young of that church ; he was also active in all 
missionary movements, prompt to take part, and 
eloquent in the advocacy of the most liberal mea- 
sures. He would have been elected an elder in 
that old church had he consented, but was, how- 
ever, an active and influential member of the 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 139 

board of trustees. The Providence which pre- 
vented him from completing his seminary course, 
and sent him back sick from Tennessee, presented 
another field of labor just adapted to his resolute 
energy and self-sacrificing spirit. 

"In the spring of 1862, a Sabbath-school was 
started in the Shiffler Hose House, Reed Street 
below Second. Mr. Sailer was elected Superin- 
tendent. The school increased rapidly in num- 
bers until the room was overcrowded, and it was 
necessary that some other building should be ob- 
tained, or the children must be driven away. 
The lot on which our chapel stands, was held in 
trust by the Pine Street Church, and was then 
available for church purposes. 

" Mr. Sailer set to work to erect this building. 
He enlisted the sympathies of some of the wealthy 
men of Pine Street Church, and solicited sub- 
scriptions from his own immediate friends ; he 
excited the enthusiasm of those in the vicinity, 
and in January, 1866, the chapel was completed 
at a cost of ten thousand dollars, all of that amount 
being paid. Without injustice to others, it may 
be truthfully said, that had not Randolph Sailer 
undertaken the work, it would not have been ac- 
complished. Had he not contributed, had he not 



140 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

solicited contributions, the building would not 
have been erected. For those who met there 
from Sabbath to Sabbath, he was both Pastor and 
Superintendent. He met the teachers weekly, 
and instructed them in the lessons, explaining 
the text, giving the exact meaning in the origi- 
nal languages, giving the historical connection, 
and suggesting the method to be adopted by each 
teacher in reaching the hearts of the pupils. He 
visited the children when sick, ministered to their 
wants, prayed by their bedsides, often kneeling 
upon the bare boards, and pointed them to the 
cross. One-half of the pastor's salary was paid 
by him since the organization of the church ; in- 
deed, without his presence and aid, such a move- 
ment would not have been possible. The Sab- 
bath-school has grown to be one of the largest in 
the southern part of the city. He was treasurer 
of the board of trustees, and the bills were always 
paid when presented. He was an elder in the 
church, and his punctuality and promptness, to- 
gether with his culture and conscientiousness, 
greatly aided the pastor in all his plans for the 
upbuilding of it. 

" Mr. Sailer was with us on the Sabbath, and 
with us during the week ; his heart was here, if 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 141 

anywhere on the earth. How faithfully did he, 
as trustee, superintendent and elder, discharge 
the duties devolving upon him ! He did the 
work of a dozen men ; came to pray with us, to 
labor for us, to cheer us on; he came through 
winter storm and summer sun alike — nothing de- 
tained him. What an example was he ! He was 
most conscientious in the discharge of every duty. 
He was a generous man — never gave grudgingly, 
gave liberally, and did not publish his gifts. Few 
but God and the receiver knew what he gave. 
He never shall be forgotten ! "While this build- 
ing stands, and while children meet here for in- 
struction, while we bow here in worship, he never 
can be forgotten ! He will perpetuate his influ- 
ence in the lives of those whom he led to God." 



142 RANDOLPH SAILER 



The following extract from the Annual Report of the Board of Directors 

of the Philadelphia Drug Exchange, will show the estimation 

in which Mr. Sailer was held hy the gentlemen 

composing that organization, 



TO THE 



Gentlemen: — The advent of another year, 
marking the tenth of the existence of your or- 
ganization, calls for the usual resume of the stew- 
ardship of your Board of Directors for the one 
just completed — a year in which events of much 
interest have transpired. 

Its opening was marked with gloom and sad- 
ness, occasioned by the bereavement sustained in 
the death of one of your most useful and honored 
members. 

There are none of you who were present at the 
meeting called in January, 1869, to record the 



RANDOLPH SAILER. 143 

feelings of the association upon the sudden de- 
cease of Randolph Sailer, but can vividly re- 
call the saddened faces, the awed and subdued 
manner of that large representation of your body, 
as they listened with responding hearts to the 
eloquent and noble tributes to the memory of 
your fellow-member, of whose friendship and 

counsel you were so suddenly deprived. 

******** 

"We miss the light step and familiar form, — the 
pleasant greeting which was the sure accompani- 
ment of his presence ; the frankness which was 
his nature ; his truthfulness, refined to a Chris- 
tian principle ; his geniality — his manliness. 
There are those of our members, too, who, in en- 
joying, rightly estimated and now deeply miss 
the peculiar charm of his social converse, which 
made him the ornament of the circle in which he 
moved. No one who knew him intimately, but 
grew the better for the gentle magic of his com- 
panionship. 

******** 

Obituary notices emanating from the pens of 
those who knew and valued Mr. Sailer, were in- 
serted in almost all the papers of this city imme- 
diately after his death. 



144 RANDOLPH SAILER. 

Resolutions of respect for the deceased and con- 
dolence with his family were passed by the Drug 
Exchange. 

At a congregational meeting of the Greenwich 
Street Presbyterian Church, resolutions were 
passed acknowledging his great services to that 
church and the Sunday-school attached to it ; 
also expressing deep sympathy with his afflicted 
family. 

Our story is told. We have given to the reader, 
we hope, enough of the writings and the works 
of our departed friend, to prove that the affection, 
esteem and respect with which he was regarded 
by all who knew him or came within the circle 
of his influence, were not misplaced. God in His 
wisdom removed him from our midst at a time 
when his example seemed most needed and his 
means of doing good w^ere most ample. Before 
him, and apparently within his grasp, seemed all 
that was desirable to a man of cultivated intel- 
lect and tastes, besides the large field for the ex- 
ercise of his generous impulses in the improve- 
ment of the moral and physical condition of his 
fellow-men. But we see he passed quietly and 
uncomplainingly away. 

"his work here was done." 



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